


red like rust

by AGracefulShadow



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Compliant, Gen, Horror, Suspense, and pizza sim didnt happen, im still working out my time line, ish?, or maybe this is before pizza sim?, where afton didnt get springtrapped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2020-03-17 00:53:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGracefulShadow/pseuds/AGracefulShadow
Summary: And this is when I start moving again, with a grim expression set onto my face and my heart bouncing between my throat and its rightful place in my chest. "It's too late now. Too late. We have to keep moving." I do, somehow, pushing past the pit in my stomach and also past Livi. "No point in stopping.""Too late if we want the money," Livi says.***Six teenagers walk into a ripoff Chuck-E-Cheese, ready to accept an easy job, good payment, and free junk food.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> shout out to my friends for LETTING me write this
> 
> you'll see why  
> later   
> :D

 

Tonight, the sky is black and moonless, broken here and there with tiny pinpricks of light from the scattered stars. We stand in a dilapidated parking lot illuminated by one dying streetlight in front of a dark building that is  _ supposed _ to be the arcade we are going to work in for the week, but there is no one inside, no one outside, and no lights on within the building. But the decal on the front of the glass says  _ Hours: Monday: 11AM-9PM.  _

So, theoretically speaking, there should be someone there. Theoretically speaking, the lights should be on in there. Theoretically speaking, there should be an adult in a green and black uniform opening the door and asking for our names right now. 

"So… Where  _ is _ everyone?" I ask, tapping my finger against the locked glass door. It's cold compared to the July air; that means the air conditioning is on. That means someone is inside, or someone  _ was _ inside and forgot to turn the air conditioning off.

Or, if the Uber driver is to be believed, someone  _ was _ inside and will never come out again. 

But that doesn't explain, then, why the lights are shut off in a building that was supposed to have remained open for our training tonight. Or why there are no cars in the parking lot. Or why there is  _ definitely _ an outdated pop song drifting from the vent. 

"No clue," Livi says in response to my question. "Training starts in ten minutes." 

"Maybe we were given the wrong address?" suggests Jason. "This place looks like it was abandoned decades ago." 

"It was being built last year," Hunter says. "So  _ definitely _ not. And how were all six of us given the wrong address?" 

I turn to look at the others, who are sitting in a sort of semi circle in front of the entrance in varying states of boredom. There are, in fact, six of us - myself, Livi, Ryan, Jason, Hunter, and Ed - all in one spot. Jason sits cross-legged on the ground, fiddling with a chunk of asphalt. "Typo on the website?" he asks. "I don't fucking know." 

"That makes literally all of us," I mutter, leaning against the cool window of the arcade. I want to believe that this is the wrong place, that there's a different location of  _ Daniel and Delilah's Arcade and Pizzeria  _ on the other side of town, but I know for a fact that this place is the right one. I can feel it. I rest my head on the glass and sigh. 

"If they don't show up by ten, what do we do?" Hunter says. "Do we call someone? The hiring manager? Corporate?"

"Dude, if we got scammed…" Ed groans. "That would be fucking  _ awful _ …"

_ Thunk _ . Something moves behind the glass. I close my eyes and wonder if I should move. 

"Don't even say that, man!" Jason says. "You're gonna make it happen!" 

_ Thunk _ . It's louder now, like it's getting closer. 

"You believe-"  _ thunk _ \- "in that-"  _ thunk _ \- "shit, Jase?" 

Now, it's followed by something else: footsteps, lighter and quicker. They're muffled by the glass. 

"Well,  _ no _ , but keep your mouth shut anyway. I'm not down to think… What  _ is _ that thing?"

_ Thunk. Thunk. Tk. Tk. Tk.  _

There's something tapping on the glass. I should  _ definitely _ move. 

"Kris," Ryan says, "turn around." 

I open my eyes and very, very slowly, heed his advice. 

A large orange face plastered with a wide-pointy toothed grin and soulless, muddy-red eyes stares back at me. Orange plastic fingers tap the glass inches from where my head was. Its head weaves back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. It never blinks. 

I fall backwards onto the concrete and scuttle backward, as far from the creature in the window as I can. I don't know where I'm going. I crash into Ryan's legs and almost push him over. 

I can hear them laughing at me. I bite my lip and push myself back to my feet, trying to avoid looking at the window. Maybe, if the thing wasn't pressed against the glass in an otherwise dark room in the middle of the night - and if it weren't so very obviously inhuman, maybe I wouldn't have fallen. I  _ want _ to glare, but my face is too red for it to come across properly. 

When I turn back to the building, the lights have flickered to life. Dim fluorescent lamps shine on black and white tiles, a dusty prize corner - and the seven foot tall dog animatronic pressing its nose against the window. In its shadow stands a  _ much _ smaller man in a green uniform. His nametag is in shadow. I dust the gravel off of my shorts. "What the fuck  _ is _ that thing?" I mumble. 

"I think it's one of the animatronics," Ryan whispers back. That is perhaps the least helpful thing that he could say at that moment. 

I hit his shoulder with perhaps more force than I intend. "No shit, Sherlock," I say, or at least, I start to, but the man with the animatronic has pulled a lanyard from under his shirt and is unlocking the door from the  _ inside _ . With a click, the door opens, and he pops his head from the doorframe. A wide grin stretches across his gaunt face. 

"You must be the new family," he says. His voice is high and cheerful. It doesn't match his eyes, which are as dead as the robot beside him. "Come on in - and don't mind Daniel, he doesn't bite." He waves a pale hand, motioning for us to follow him inside. With his other hand, he snaps his fingers. The robot stops weaving and stands stock still. Its eyes stare directly at me. 

I shiver and don't make a move to enter. Neither does anyone else.  _ See, you're not laughing now _ , I think. I want to grin, but I really don't want to move. And, apparently, neither does anyone else. 

The man scowls, an expression which looks  _ much _ more natural on him. "Come on," he says, "we don't have all night. You have ten seconds before you ain't getting hired." Once again, he beckons for us to join him. 

This time, no one hesitates, and one by one we file into the dimly lit lobby. The man snaps his fingers again and he and the robot - I  _ refuse _ to call it by whatever name they chose for it - move the center of the room. The robot has resumed its weaving pattern again; its head turns down the semi-circle the six of us form around it and back again. It seems incapable of moving its eyes. I don't trust it. 

"Welcome, you… six," the man says. He still stands in the shadow of the animatronic; his name tag is still invisible. "Welcome to your new jobs as night guards and general help at  _ Daniel and Delilah's Arcade and Pizzeria _ . I'm to be your boss, and this is one of your co-workers-" he smacks the animatronic's metal torso affectionately, eliciting a hollow  _ thunk-  _ "and you can call both of us Daniel." That toothy grin stretches once more across his thin face, and the animatronic next to him opens its metal mouth as if it, too, wants to smile. I tear my eyes from it. "Over the course of the next five nights, you'll be spending an awful lot of time together, the eight of you, so why don't we take a few moments to introduce ourselves?" 

I look over at Ryan, then Livi, and try not to laugh. We  _ already _ know each other, either from theatre or from sharing an English class with them all last year. There's really nothing to introduce. 

There is yet another awkward silence. The evening is off to a wonderful start. "Don't be shy," the man says, his cheerful facade about to crack again. It doesn't take a lot for him to lose his temper, I note. "Well?" He points into the center of the semi-circle. "You, with the brown hair. You first."

He's pointing at Livi. She's now pointing at herself. "Me?" she asks, and now she  _ actually  _ laughs, in that awkward way that most accurately reflects everyone right now. "We, hm, already know each other?" She gestures to the rest of the semi-circle. 

I swear I can see the man's face twitch. "Well then, for my sake," he says. "You are?"

"Oh." Pause of discomfort. "Well. My name is Olivia Holloway." 

The man's fake grin returns to his face. "A lovely name," he says. I wince  _ for  _ her. "You, to the left. We'll go in a circle." He points to Ed, who scratches the back of his neck. 

"Uh, Ed Crichton," he says, without making eye contact. "Anything else we need to say or-?"

Jason hisses, "Don't give him ideas!"

The man laughs. "No, your names are alright. More will come naturally, Ed. It always does." He points to Jason now. "And you?"

"Me? I'm uh, Jason Esposito," Jason stutters, tugging at his shirt nervously. "Do you have a last name, or are we just supposed to call you Daniel?" 

The man shrugs. "It doesn't matter to me," he says. "Alright, your turn." And now he's pointing at Ryan, which means that I'm next. I rock back and forth on my heels impatiently. 

"Ryan Lockwood," he says, and that is all he says. I look up at Daniel and see him smiling broadly at me. The animatronic's eyes are trained directly on me as well. I shiver a bit. 

"Kristianna Ollis," I say slowly, watching the robot move its hands back and forth as if it is mimicking me. I chew on my lip and turn to Hunter. 

"Hunter Hyatt," he says. He seems the calmest out of all of us, somehow. I envy him. 

The man clasps his hands. "There, that wasn't so bad," he says with a little  _ too _ much enthusiasm. "Now that that is out of the way, we can move on to the more… Interesting parts of the night." He snaps his fingers and points back down the hallway. "Daniel here is heading back to his stage for the night, and we are going to go to home base: the security office." Almost in unison, he and the robot turn around and start walking down the dimly lit hallway. 

At least the robot's footsteps are loud. 

I get the distinct feeling that no one really wants to be here anymore from the fact that it takes a solid fifteen seconds for any of us to start moving. Better yet, the fact that the first person to start moving is  _ me.  _

"He's already threatened our jobs once," I say to them, shrugging. "No need for him to go through with it."

The hallway we walk down towards the office is lit by yellow emergency lights along the floor and nothing more. Checkerboard tiles continue about halfway up the walls, then start the posters. In the dark, it's hard to see what they are. The dog holds something long and thin in one; the dinosaur smiles a sharp-toothed grin in another. I look straight ahead at the man and his dog and try not to think about the ghosts in the posters. It's hard with no one speaking.

The man has stopped at an intersection, but the dog is continuing to the left. "The show stage is that way - you make a left at the corner," the man says. "That's where you're likely to find Daniel and Delilah throughout the night." He points at a gaping doorway squished between two small windows next to him, waiting for us to gather back into our semi-circle before he continues. I crane my neck to try and see into it, but the room beyond it is almost pitch black. "And here's the security office, where you're likely to find yourselves throughout the night." 

He should stop trying to make jokes. It's only making him seem less likable. 

He turns to the office and steps inside, searching for a light switch. I look down the semicircle of people and bite my lip. No one's said a word since the introduction, and it's starting to bother me. I can't handle the silence, not when I'm nervous. I shift my weight back and forth and look back at the man before I say or do something dumb. I'm not looking to do that right now. 

The man clicks on a light switch and some dim fluorescents buzz to life, highlighting a large desk and two box like computers. On the far side of the front wall is another wide open doorjamb. Next to it is a white button and a grimy window. The man taps the desk. "Come in, we have work to do," he says, and slowly, we enter the office one by one and clump together around the huge wooden desk. It's strewn with papers. The man scoops them into an orderly pile and hands the stack to Ryan. "Take one, pass it down," he says. "There are your contracts. Read them carefully. They include every detail as to what you'll be doing here."  _ Click _ . He opens a drawer. "In here are the training tapes, which will further explain anything you should be confused about and are required listening after signing onto the job." 

I look at the contract in my hand. It's nothing special, just a page front-and-back with a bulleted lists of responsibilities written in hard-to-follow legal jargon. I don't think anything on there is going to surprise me - after all, the website did do a pretty good job of explaining. I read it anyway.  _ Someone _ has to, and I doubt anyone else is going to. 

I'm right. Ed turns in his in a solid thirty seconds after getting it. "Aren't there uniforms?" he says. "The website said uniforms…" 

"You're a fast reader," the man says, although there's something  _ else _ in that sarcastic comment that I can't quite discern. "But they're over here, in the storage." He guides Ed towards a structure that I presume is some kind of closet, and I turn down to the contract in my hands. 

Something in the ceiling creaks.

"Old pipes," the man says in response to a question nobody asked. 

There's a scraping sound, like metal on metal. 

I don't question it. I don't want to. Instead, I squint at the tiny print on the contract and search for important information.  _ Someone _ has to. I don't expect anything in particular to stand out, but I am… unpleasantly surprised by the first paragraph. 

_ Please note _ , it reads,  _ that Fazbear Entertainment is NOT TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURY TO POSSESSION OR PERSON, UP TO AND INCLUDING DEATH. SIGNING THIS CONTRACT OFFICIALLY WAIVES THE COMPANY FROM ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH. SHOULD ANY OCCUR, ANY AND ALL LEGAL ACTION TAKEN AGAINST THE COMPANY IS VOID.  _

It's a strange paragraph to read in a contract, especially for a job like this. And something about the company name seems familiar… I swallow and ask, "This job is safe, right?" before I can stop myself. 

"Ah, you've read  _ that _ paragraph," the man replies. At least I'm not the first person who's questioned it. "This is protection against idiocy - as long as you follow the safety standards outlined in the tapes, you should be completely safe. Don't worry too much. You're all smart kids." He grins again, but it's not  _ friendly _ . "You'll be fine." 

There is not a single encouraging word in that statement. We're  _ gifted _ kids. That doesn't mean we're  _ smart _ . I peer down the semicircle to my left and make eye contact with Livi for the briefest of moments. I'm pretty sure she's thinking the same thing. I look past her at Ed and Jason and wonder exactly what that clause is preventing. There has to be a story behind it, but I don't think I want to know what it is. 

"I  _ really _ want to go home," Ryan whispers to me. I not my head emphatically. I don't think anyone actually wants to stay here any longer than they have to. Not anymore.

The man has begun to talk again about something or other, but my attention is once more on the contract. Nothing new or question worthy stands out besides the liability clause until the very bottom. It almost looks like a sort of nondisclosure agreement. 

_ Until such time as this contract is rendered null and void, the undersigned shall not say anything negative about the Fazbear establishment at which s/he works or Fazbear Entertainment as a company. The undersigned is also hereby forbidden from mentioning anything that goes on within company walls that is not already public knowledge. Failure to uphold this part of the contract will result in immediate termination and/or a lawsuit.  _

I read the second sentence over and over again. What the hell could it  _ possibly _ be referring to? This is a Chuck E. Cheese bootleg, not a human experimentation facility. For a second, I look up, prepared to ask what it means, but change my mind at the last second. I don't think I want to know - I don't think I'd be  _ allowed _ to know, if the man in front of us is bound to the same contract that we are. I also don't want to worry anyone more than they already are. I motion for Ryan to pass me the black pen on the desk in front of him to sign. Might as well. I'm curious as to what this entails.

The man taps a second cardboard box next to the one that contains the training tapes. This one is larger and more bowed, like its stuffed with something. "They come in three sizes - small, medium, and large - and must be worn at all times with on duty and in the facility," he is saying, and I'm pretty sure the box contains our uniforms. I hand my contract to Ryan and rock back and forth on my heels. 

"Now, that should be everything." The man picks up the contracts on the desk and counts them. "Does anyone have any questions?" 

Nobody moves. I wonder if anyone else read the nondisclosure agreement. 

The man smiles for what I hope is the last time. "Good. Then I hope to see you again on Saturday for an evaluation meeting. Unfortunately, I have… Other places I have to be, so here is where I have to say goodbye." He taps the two cardboard boxes with his free hand. "Tapes, then uniforms. And that  _ should _ take you to midnight and the start of your shift. Have a lovely week." He's walking out of the office as he says this. His smile looks like a rift torn in his face. "And welcome to the family." 

And with that, he's gone, leaving six teenagers in a room to their own devices. 


	2. Chapter 2

I stare at the door after him for a while, half expecting him to pop back in with some other comment. Maybe an explanation for why there's a night guard, which is something that I've been dying to know. But he doesn't. He's gone, seemingly for good, and there's a strange feeling in my gut because of it. Some weird mixture of relief and dread. I can chalk  _ that _ up to anxiety. 

The room is now silent, save for the buzzing lights and the occasional  _ bang _ of something in the vents. Or the pipes. Or both. I turn around to face everyone and say, "So, we should probably get started."

Jason appears to have beaten me to it; he's already rummaging through the smaller of the boxes. "Yeah," he mutters. "The tapes are in reverse order, gimme a sec." He shoves his hand into the bottom and pulls out a beat up, dusty tape with a faded number one written on the side and tape leaking out from one of the sides. "Uh-oh." 

"Who would  _ actually _ use a tape in 2019?" Ed says, pointing at the most likely useless and  _ very _ outdated piece of technology in Jason's hand. "A DVD would make more sense. Or, y'know, a YouTube video."

"Maybe they turn the wi-fi off at night," Hunter suggests. 

Jason sticks his pinky in one of the holes and twists. Nothing happens. "I think this one's just shot," he says. He puts it on the desk and turns back to the box. "Guess we'll just skip that one then." 

While he is going through with those, I slip between Ed and Hunter and look at the uniform box. This one seems more organized - the uniforms look fresh and clean and they smell like laundry detergent. I take out the top one. Small. 

"This is the second one, but I also found one that says 'uno,'" Jason says. "So if anyone here speaks Spanish, I think we could start there." 

No one responds to him. I guess that means no one does. I pull out more uniforms and place them in a neat stack next to the box, searching for a large. 

"Maybe the best option is to start from the most intact one we have," Jason says. "Number three." 

There's a large. I pull it out and tuck it under my arm. When I turn back, the boys are crowding around the tape. "Don't you have to rewind tapes?" Ed asks, holding the thing between two fingers like it's poisonous. 

"Only if it's already been watched," Hunter says. He snatches it from Ed and stares at it. "Where would we watch it? Does one of the computers have a VCR? How are we supposed to work a VCR?"

Ryan stares at the computer directly to his left. "When did this become the eighties?" he asks no one in particular. 

I get the feeling this is going to take a while. 

"Livi," I hiss behind Ed's back. Livi looks up from her phone. "Since they're, uh, preoccupied--" I tilt my head at the four boys next to us-- "wanna come with me to get changed? Mostly cause I don't want to go alone and you're the only one who  _ can _ ." 

She shrugs. "Nothing better to do," she says. "Pass me one." 

I toss her one of the ones from the top; she doesn't catch it. I bite my cheek to keep from grinning until we're both out of the office. The guys don't even notice we've left, I don't think. I don't expect them too. Once we're in the hallway, I giggle. 

"You didn't see anything," Livi says, which only makes me laugh some more. 

I nudge her shoulder. "Let me be, it was funny. There has to be something to laugh at  _ anyway _ , I mean… Something's  _ definitely _ wrong here." The smile falls from my face way too fast for my liking. I tilt my head to look around the dimly lit hall. "I can't be the only one who gets that, right?"

Livi shakes her head. "Oh, trust me, I get that.  _ He  _ definitely wasn't telling us anything." She tosses a glance over her shoulder. "Doubt the videos would either."

I nod. "That's a given. It's like they're-" I stop cold; the vents echo again- "like they're trying to leave us in the dark." 

Livi has also stopped; she looks up at the ceiling. "I don't know anything about plumbing, but that is  _ definitely _ not the pipes," she says. 

I shake my head again. "Nope. But!" And this is when I start moving again, with a grim expression set onto my face and my heart bouncing between my throat and its rightful place in my chest. "It's too late now. Too late. We have to keep moving." I do, somehow, pushing past the pit in my stomach and also past Livi. "No point in stopping." 

"Too late if we want the money," Livi says. 

We walk in near-silence the rest of the way, silence that is broken only by the echoing in the vents above us and the chirping of the few active games in the arcade on our left. The hallway feels more and more like it won't end with every step we take. I crane my neck to stare up at the ceiling and almost crash right into Livi when she stops. 

"We're here," she says curtly. I take a step backward. 

For a supposedly new building, the bathroom is in awful condition, but compared to the rest of the building, it's completely normal. It's also tiny. Two stalls line the left wall, mirrored by two sinks and two dirty mirrors. There's a dented vent in the ceiling right next to the back wall, right above the trash can. 

The noises continue. 

"It almost sounds like footsteps," I say, staring up at the grate. 

"You can say literally anything else right now," Livi says. "But not that."

The noises -- the footsteps? -- get louder. I shiver and almost dive into the farther of the two stalls. We need to get out of here fast; at the very least, I want to. I slam the lock shut as quickly as I can and hope Livi takes the hint. 

The uniform isn't hard to put on - it's just a green polo shirt, black slacks, a belt, and a bracelet that looks somewhat like a FitBit. I change into it as quickly - and as noisily - as I can, although I stop on the bracelet. Something about that is off, like it shouldn't quite exist. I tap the black screen on top of it and it lights up. It wants to read a heart beat. Maybe it  _ is _ an off brand FitBit. 

I tuck my shirt into my pants and put the bracelet in my pocket. Part of me  _ doesn't  _ want to wear it right now. With that, I step out of the stall with my street clothes balled up in my hand and Livi still in the stall next to me. 

"You have any idea what the bracelet thing is for?" she asks.

I don't. "I dunno," I say instead. "Maybe it's a gift for new employees, kinda like an incentive to join?" I shrug and rest my hand on the sink. My fingers brush against something wet. I hope it's just water. 

"Please," Livi scoffs. "If that were the case, then I don't think the boys'd be struggling with an actual videotape right now."

I have to laugh at that. "You're not wrong," I say, pulling a paper towel out of the dented dispenser in between the two mirrors. Slowly, I wipe my fingers with it. 

The knocking noises have stopped, I notice. I don't comment on it. I'm relieved - maybe the thing left us, or maybe it  _ was _ just the old pipes, or maybe it's something else like a problem with the air conditioning that finally resolved itself. Whatever it is, I'm grateful it's stopped. 

I think. I go to toss my paper towel into the trash can. 

Something glitters in the vent above it. I look up to a set of sharp claws and one yellow eye. 

The paper towel doesn't make it into the trash can.

I take a step backward, staring at the eye in the vent. It doesn't blink. It doesn't move from my face. The claws below it lift and scrape along the grate. The grate screams in protest. 

My breath catches in my throat and I flinch. "Jesus Ch-Christ," I whisper.

The claws press down on the grate.  _ Screech _ . 

I take another step backward. My hand is pressed against the door to Livi's stall. We should run. We should hide. I curl my fingers into a fist. 

The grate holds.

I stare up at the vent, trying to steady my breathing. The yellow eye stares back at me, completely lifeless, before it vanishes from sight and lumbers off back the way it came. All at once, I let out every bit of air from my lungs and lock my knees to keep from collapsing to the ground. Something tells me we just avoided death by the skin of our teeth -- by the nails of a grate. 

"H-holy shit," I stammer. 

"What?" Livi asks. 

I pull my hand from the door and giggle. There's nothing to laugh at. I cover my mouth with my hand. "I-I think… I don't-" The words are getting jumbled. "Did… Did you read the nondisclosure agreement in the contract?" I say instead, scrubbing my hand with my face. My glasses fall to the floor. I couldn't care less.

"Skimmed it, why?" She opens the stall door and stares at me. "Kris, what just happened?" 

I point at the vent. "I think… I think I just saw why," I say breathlessly. "Jesus Christ…" 

Livi can't see anything. I know this; there's nothing left to see. "Is there a body up there?" she asks incredulously, flicking her brown eyes from me to the vents and back again. 

I shake my head. "No, maybe, possibly?" It wouldn't surprise me at this point. "But there's definitely something… worse, unless I'm… hallucinating or some shit." I rub my hand down my face again. "You heard all that, right?" 

She cocks an eyebrow and nods. "The metal? And the… knocking?" she asks. "Yeah. That was real." 

I bend down and pick up my glasses. "This is going to be a fun week," I say, trying not to dissolve into nervous laughter again. I wipe my glasses on my slacks and shake my head slowly. "Fun being, y'know, a relative term."

"What did you see?" Livi asks. 

I shrug. "I've no fucking idea, and no desire to find out." Slowly, I put my glasses on. "We should probably get out of here." And back to the others. I would feel safer in the group. I rub my arms. "There's only one exit, if whatever it is comes back, and if it breaks through-"

"Stop," Livi says. She's already turning to leave. "Let's just go." She's out the door before I can make any response. I sigh. It's been twenty minutes and we're already off to a wonderful start.

The bathroom door clicks shut. Hesitantly, I cast a glance over my shoulder at the vent. Nothing there. The only sound is the gentle  _ whoosh _ of air.  It's completely incongruous with what was there moments before. I shiver and tear my eyes from the vent. Have to keep moving. I hurry myself out of the cramped bathroom. The vents remain quiet. 

Livi points down the other hallway, the one leading back towards the show stage. "I think we should head back the  _ other _ way," she says. 

"Why?" I ask. "It's longer. And we should  _ probably  _ get back as fast as we can." I peer down the dark hallway, but the emergency lights only make the corridor look longer. The one we came from isn't much better, though - if anything, the blue light from the arcade only makes it more ominous. 

"Not like we were given a tour." Livi shrugs. "And I  _ doubt _ that they're done with the tapes yet." 

I have to laugh. "I mean, you aren't wrong," I say. "But I don't…" I look down the hall again, towards the show stage. Part of me doesn't want to admit the other reason I don't want to go down there. I shake my head to clear it. "Eh, whatever, let's do it. There really isn't anything better to do." 

_ Knock, knock _ . 

I whip my head up to the ceiling, but there's nothing there. I shake my head again. "Let's go," I say, "before something goes wrong."

The corridor stretches on even longer than the one we just walked down. Here and there the walls are broken by patches of blackness - dining rooms, most likely. Against one of the walls is a claw machine, noticeable only by the glittering red lights on top of it. It almost looks like something in it is moving when we walk past. I snap my gaze in front of me. 

The hallway ends abruptly without turning again. In front of us is a doorway; colorful lining wraps around it. The sign next to the door reads, if I'm reading it correctly,  _ Daniel and Delilah's Stage and Play Area _ . There is no way to turn past it. 

I twist around back down the hallway and then peek into the show stage. This area of the building is completely dark. No matter how hard I squint, I can't see anything. They're in there, I know, but I can't  _ see _ them. I bite my lip. "Well," I mumble. "Should we go  _ back _ ?" 

I stick my head further into the room. My eyes strain, searching for any tiny bit of light, but I can't see anything but an outline of  _ maybe  _ a table. I grab the door jamb and look back at Livi, whose face is completely unreadable in the dark. She moves forward into the doorway next to me. "Probably?" she says. She's now just a step farther into the room then I am. Slowly, she pulls out her phone and turns on the flashlight. All that reveals is a banner hanging from the ceiling. "If we can't see, then-"

And then, suddenly, we can. 

The lights, brilliant white fluorescents, blaze to life, washing the room in painful brightness. With that comes a low thumping bass beat. It's like someone's preparing for music. I grab Livi's arm before I can stop myself and refuse to let go. 

"Y-You must be the birthd-day boy!" stutters a mechanical voice. I stare at the center of the room and the stage in front of it. On top of it are two animatronics, grinning and waving or playing an instrument. One is the dog from earlier - it raises its mechanical paw and says, "C-come on in!"

"We d-don't bite!" says the other, a shorter, squatter green dinosaur.  It has sharper teeth than the dog does. I find it hard to believe. 

"What the  _ fuck _ …?" Livi breathes. 

I shrug. "This is on you," I say, before I can stop myself. 

" _ Me _ ? What did I-"

"L-let's celebrate!" the dog says. Its voice is grating, painful to listen to. The music is getting louder, and I think I recognize the song now. "Sin-ng along!" It waves its hands as if its hyping up a crowd. Its lifeless brown eyes are trained right on me. 

A high-pitched, tinny rendition of  _ Party Rock Anthem  _ starts playing from the speaker in the dinosaur's chest. I stare at the two animatronics, then at Livi, then back at the animatronics. "What do we  _ do _ ?" I hiss. I still haven't let go of her arm. 

_ Party rock is in the house tonight…  _

"Run? Turn them off?" Livi shrugs. "That's the only thing we can do- Let go!" She yanks her hand away from me. 

"Sorry." I scratch my wrist absently. "Running. That's a good idea." But I don't move to do it, and Livi doesn't look particularly keen on doing it, and the animatronics sing on. 

The dog's mouth moves up and down, up and down; its head shakes back and forth, back and forth; its eyes stay completely still. It's like the robot is analyzing us. I can't shake the feeling of being hunted. I want it to go  _ away _ . 

It continues to sing.  _ We gonna make you lose your mind. _ I look away from it. 

"There has to be some way to shut it off," Livi is saying, drawing me back into reality. "A switch...?" She's stepped farther into the room. I can't shake the feeling that this is a bad idea. 

I look back at the robots and see that they've both shifted. Two robot bodies are facing directly towards us. I swallow hard. 

"It would probably be in the back or off to the side," I say quietly, rocking back and forth on my heels. "Not easy to reach…" 

The dog's mouth has stopped moving. It's wide open. The music continues to play. 

Livi doesn't appear to be listening to me. Unsurprising. She leans on the table nearest to the doorway and drums her fingers on its acrylic surface. "Is that a  _ closet _ ?" she says, pointing behind the stage. 

I try to follow her, but all I can see is the slowly moving dog animatronic. 

"Maybe the switch is in there?" She starts towards the crowded stage. 

The dog has now frozen. The music is even tinnier now.  _ Get up, get down. _

I grab Livi's arm. "Wait-" I say, pulling her back before she steps further towards the stage. "Couldn't that guy, like,  _ control _ it?" 

We both look at the dog animatronic. Its head is cocked to the left; its metallic tail wags slowly back and forth. The music is starting to fade away. Bursts of static cut through.  _ Put your- put your- get down- down.  _

Livi laughs a little bit. "You think I was paying attention?" she says. "But I think, yeah, there was something." She glances between me and the robots onstage. "Where are you going with this?"

Bewildered, I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe you could, uh, do something?" 

"Me? What do you expect  _ me _ to do?" 

The dog opens its mouth even wider, like it's grinning. Its eyes look completely white.  _ Trick of the light _ , I hope. My gaze slides to the dinosaur - that, too, has a pointy-toothed smile plastered on its face. I shrug again. "Uh, try snapping your fingers," I say. "I think he did that." 

The music has dwindled to a low, thumping bass beat. Livi raises her eyebrows at me. "Okay…?" she says hesitantly. She raises her fingers, pointing directly at the dog, and snaps. 

The dog stretches its paw in front of it and walks off the stage. It's coming straight for us.

I bolt. 

I don't wait for Livi. I don't check to make sure I'm not being followed. I turn on my heel and sprint straight out of the show stage and back into the hallway and don't stop until I slam into the wall adjacent the bathrooms. My heart pounds in my chest. The shaking begins in my arms and spreads across my entire body. I press myself against the wall and remain there for a few moments, willing myself to calm down. 

It doesn't take long for me to steady my breathing to a reasonable amount. I turn around towards the show stage; a silhouette limps towards me. I jump and prepare to run again, but then the lights click out in the show stage and I realize that it's just Livi. I sigh in relief. "Thank  _ God _ ," I say, before I can stop myself. 

Livi rubs her hip. "You threw me into the table," she mutters. 

"Sorry. I, uh, threw myself into the wall, so. Karma?" I scratch the back of my neck awkwardly. "Let's, uh, get back to the office, shall we?"

"What the hell, Kris?" she says. "What was  _ that _ ?"

I've already turned to walk away. "I panicked?" I offer with an unhelpful shrug. "Fight or flight instinct?" 

Livi rubs the bridge of her nose. "So you left me for dead," she says.

"Sorry…?" 

She shakes her head slowly. "Thanks.  _ Love _ that." She's moved past me now. At least she's walking normally. It must not have been that bad. I hurry to catch up with her. 

"I'm  _ really _ sorry-" I say, nervous. "I didn't  _ intend _ to ditch you, I just- Didn't think." 

No response. I tap my finger against my chin. "I wasn't gonna leave you to die  _ earlier _ , in the bathroom?" I offer. "So I guess I'm one to one? On that?" 

Still nothing. But the knocking begins again. I freeze and whip around to face the vents, but the ceiling is still completely black. I shake my head to clear it and turn back around. 

Livi walks on without me. I jog to catch up. "I promise it won't happen again," I say, although I'm not sure that's a problem I can keep. I know that I'm going to have to try, at least. I glance over my shoulder again at the empty hallway. 

Livi still isn't making any sign of acknowledging me, and we're almost to the office. I grab her shoulder to make her stop and say, "It won't, I swear." 

We stand in front of the arcade, but the glowing blue light only makes it harder to read her expression. She pushes my hand off of her. "O _ kay _ ," she says. "I  _ get  _ it." 

She starts off again and I walk beside her, but I don't say anything. 

_ Knock knock knock knock knock.  _

_ _


	3. Chapter 3

Ninety minutes to our first shift.

When we return to the office, I get the distinct feeling that something bad has happened. I don't know where I get it from, but something tells me... 

Ryan stares pointedly at his phone, ignoring the blue-screened monitor behind him. He taps his fingers against the shelf and runs his thumb over the back of his phone case. He only glances up when Livi raps on the doorframe to make it obvious that we've returned. Something's definitely gotten him on edge - not that I'm not. I don't approach him, though. Livi moves first, and I think it's smart to give her as much space as a cramped office can allow. 

She crosses the office floor, stepping over a tiny ball that I believe to have once been Jason. Jason lifts his head as she does so. He's bitten a tiny sliver into his lip. Something's definitely gotten  _ him _ too, and it's bad, too. Jason seems close to a panic attack. His anxiety's contaminating the whole room. I rock back and forth on my heels and flick my gaze away from him and towards the paper-strewn desk.

Ed's feet are propped up on top of it. Ed himself is asleep. I'm simultaneously amazed and completely unsurprised. He must have slept through whatever disaster just occurred. 

I turn instead to the first monitor, the one with the VCR slot beneath it. Hunter squats next to it, fiddling with buttons with one hand and holding to the top of it just a bit too tightly with the other. He seems the least stressed out of all of us. He mutters a curse word under his breath. 

"What happened here?" I venture, drumming my fingers against my thigh. 

Jason shakes his head slowly. "You don't want to know," he says, his voice tinny and breathless. 

"Nothing helpful," Hunter says. He smacks the heel of his hand against the outdated computer. "Do me a favor and google how we get this thing to work. Because whatever I'm doing isn't."

A nervous laugh escapes me before I can stop myself. "What do you mean, nothing helpful? Didn't you watch the training tapes?"

Jason practically cackles dryly. I wonder what we missed. 

Hunter huffs. "Tapes, yes," he says. "Training, no. I think this is... There's a serial number here, just plug this into Google, for the love of god." He taps a part of the boxy computer and starts to read out a string of numbers and letters without giving me a chance to say anything to the contrary. I scramble to pull my phone out of my pocket. 

I wonder if I should say anything about the thing in the vents. I don't get a chance to. "Now," Hunter insists. I bite my lip and hurry to search for any manual for a decades-old computer system. 

I'll tell them later. I don't want to stress them out anymore than they already are. But I can't help but look up while my phone loads. The vent overhead remains empty and ominously quiet. I think I see something glitter, but I might be imagining things. 

"Anything?" Hunter says. 

If there's anything up there, I'll feed him to it. 

 

Seventy-five minutes to our first shift. 

One of the two computers is working. 

Livi turns from her computer with a sort of triumph. What once was a blue-screen is a now a blue sky with puffy white clouds and a green hill. I can't see the icons on the bottom, but I guess we can access the internet with that machine. Or we could try, at least. I doubt we'd get very far. 

"One down, one to go," I say, smiling just a little bit. 

Hunter doesn't appear to share in the victory. "Great," he says instead. "Now help me." He smacks the clunky VCR he remains seated in front of him and groans. "How did we get into this? Jason, you rem-?"

"No, thank you very much," Jason mumbles into the linoleum. "Did you try turning it on and back off-"

"It wasn't that bad!" Hunter says, exasperated. 

"What wasn't that bad?" I ask. They have yet to explain anything. As do I, but I haven't had a chance to drop any cryptic hints or try and circumlocute around whatever occurred while we were out. 

Hunter waves his hand as if he were waving off a rumor. "Corrupted tapes," he says, as if that answers anything. "Don't worry about it."

Livi crouches down next to him and squints at the buttons. I take this opportunity to step back. Involuntarily, I stare up at the vent again. 

Nothing there. I both do and don't expect that to be the case. I chew my lip and peel my eyes from the flimsy-looking metal grate. 

"Why do you keep looking up there?" Jason asks. I blink at him, at the concerned lines written across his face, and swallow. 

"No reason," I choose to say. "Nothing too bad." It's a grim echo of Hunter's words, and I can tell that Jason doesn't believe me. I flick my eyes off of him quickly, as if to signal that the conversation's over. I don't think he needs to know right now. And neither does Livi, apparently; she stares at me like I just accused someone of murder. I shrug and try to pass it off like I had to say that. 

"Where's the input button?" Hunter says, breaking the silence. I slide stiffly towards the paper-littered desk. Maybe there's something in the myriad of sheets scattered haphazardly across the desk that could help - or maybe there's something there we have to do. Either way, it'll make me useful. I scoop up a few and flick through them. 

 

Sixty-five minutes to our first shift. 

The vents are knocking again. 

I crumple the papers in my hands and stare up through the grate. Nothing. No glittering claws, no glowing yellow eye. I swallow and turn back to the paperwork I'm holding. 

"I wish we knew what that was," Jason says. 

I keep my mouth shut this time. 

 

Sixty minutes to our first shift. 

Hunter and Livi step back from the now functioning monitor and study it curiously. I peer between the two of them at the flickering, shaky image on the screen. "That's it?" I ask, tapping a few sheets together. 

"The computer has a VCR in it," Hunter says. "What did you expect, HD?" 

I squint. "You can barely make anything out." 

"It's good enough!" he snaps. 

I wonder what's got him so riled up. I have a feeling pushing him would only make it worse. So I don't say anything. Instead, I set the stack of papers aside and start gathering more of them. 

"Besides," he mutters, "the lights are off. I'm sure if the lights were lit up we'd see something." 

I don't respond. I'm not sure who he's talking to at this point. My attention remains focused on the papers on the desk. They're a bit more organized now, a bit less scattered all over the place. And they're completely unhelpful. 

Electric bill, reads one. Water bill, says another. This must be the manager's office during the day. There's nothing that explains anything about a night guard's job - no sheets from a worker's handbook, no extra copies of the contract.

"There's a map of the cameras," Jason says. "I wonder where the animatronics are."

Hunter shrugs. "What did Daniel say, again?" He presses his finger against the screen of the monitor. "This is the office-"

"Here," Livi interrupts. She taps the monitor above where Hunter points. There's a trackpad type mouse right in front of the low-set screen. She uses it and the screen turns pitch black, save for the outline of the building used for navigation. "That's it."

"How do you know?" asks Hunter incredulously. "Can see even less in here than the other rooms." 

Livi glances over her shoulder at me. I put on my best apologetic grimace. "We ran into them on our way back," she says, turning back to Hunter. "It's the largest room in the building. Also, it says Show Stage at the top?"

I pick up a sheet of paper lying next to me and flip it over. A newspaper clipping is photocopied onto the top left corner. Northeastern Arcade Chain Owner Acquitted, reads the title, but the article is unreadable. It's been copied too many times. Black ink circles the last paragraph. Next to it reads "Do better next time! This goes for all of you!" in faded pen. I decide not to give myself a headache reading that and set it aside, for now. 

"The camera's out in the kitchen," Hunter remarks. I look back up at the monitor and see gray static covering the screen. 

The next sheet I pick up is a different newspaper clipping. Teens Awarded Special Grant From Work, this says, and underneath is a damaged picture of two smiling boys in front of a Daniel and Delilah's, somewhere. Black pen has again circled the title, although this time the text says, "Like this! Good job." I put that on top of the first one. 

"The kitchen is nowhere near here," Livi says. "Shouldn't be a problem, then." 

I grab a third piece of paper. "Unless one of us has to go in there," I say. "We wouldn't know if something bad happened-" 

"Nothing bad is going to happen!" Hunter snaps. "Stop worrying-"

"-Or if one of the animatronics went in there?" I say. "We'd have to manually check what they were doing. Or did do. Or whatever the case may be. Losing track of them might lead to-"

"Nothing bad is going to happen," Hunter says again, this time quieter and less controlled. 

I think of the thing in the vents, with its sharp metal claws and unblinking yellow eye. 

"Tell you what," he continues, without anyone asking him to. "If anything needs to be done in the kitchen, I'll go do it." He hits a button on the trackpad and changes the camera to a room awash in blue light - the arcade. "That sound fair to you?" 

The vents echo with that knocking sound again. I bite the inside of my cheek. "Fair enough to me," Livi says. 

"Are you okay?" I ask Hunter instinctively. 

"Never been better!" Hunter replies. 

The third piece of paper in my hands is another newspaper clipping. This one has a faded photo of the dog animatronic under the title. Arcade Chain Plans to Open New Locations in Southeastern Pennsylvania. There's nothing interesting on this one. I set it with the other two. 

 

Fifty minutes to our first shift. 

I have finished with the papers on the desk and have migrated over towards Ryan. Jason is alternating between staring at the ceiling and his phone. Livi has sat down on the counter next to the monitor. Hunter paces back and forth. And Ed remains fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the tension ready to boil over at any moment. 

"Maybe you should get into your uniform," I say to the nervous Hunter. "Work off some of that energy by walking to the bathrooms." 

Hunter makes no sign of having heard me. I sigh and rest my head on Ryan's shoulder. "We're off to a wonderful start," I mumble.

Ryan hums in agreement. He pauses. "What did you guys see out there?" he asks, his voice low enough that Hunter can't hear him.

I shrug without lifting my forehead. "A couple of things," I say noncommittally. "Not sure how important they are."

"Anything's important," he says. "Might do- something to ease this."

"Yeah," I say. "But. I'm petty. And I don't want  _ him _ to know." I jerk my head at the ever-pacing Hunter. "If we ever kick him out of the room, then I'll tell you." 

Ryan nods. "I get it."

"If he dies, I don't think he'd be missed," I mutter before I register what I'm saying. 

Ryan's eyes widen. He stares ominously at me. "If he  _ what _ ?" 

The yellow eye works itself back into my thoughts. I swallow, patting his arm. "I-I'll explain later," I say. "When he's out of the room."

Hunter pauses at the doorway and drums his fingers on the door jamb. "Maybe I should get in my uniform," he says to himself. He seems to have created that thought completely on his own. 

" _ Please _ ," Livi says. 

Hunter power-walks across the room and begins to rummage through the beat up box of uniforms. "I'll do a perimeter sweep as well," he says, seemingly to no one. "That will give us a sense of what this place is like." He pulls out a black polo shirt and folds it gently over his arm. 

Livi and I shoot each other glances at the exact same time. Maybe keeping quiet was a bad thing. But I don't think that would matter now. Hunter is, at this point, so lost in his own head he's probably forgotten the rest of us actually exist. I chew on my lower lip. 

"You do that," Livi says, returning her attention back to her phone. That was on purpose. I don't think Hunter registers it.

"Aren't you going to take anyone with you?" I ask. I kind of don't want him to. My gaze drops to Jason, who remains lying on the floor. "We all have to wear uniforms."

Hunter's already out the door. Something falls to the floor with a soft clatter in his wake. 

"Alrighty then," I say, staring at the disappearing shadow that is Hunter. 

Jason pushes himself up to a sitting position and slips his phone into his pocket. "So, then," he says. His hands look like they're shaking a little. I swallow hard and shove my hands into my pants pockets. 

"Yeah?" I say, rocking back and forth on my heels. 

He takes a deep breath. His eyes stare warily at the ceiling vent. "What… What's happening here?" 

 

Forty minutes to our first shift. 

Jason stares at the vents, then flicks his gaze between me and Livi, then stares at the empty, silent vent. "It wants to kill us," he says quietly, echoing the last thing I've said. 

I scratch the back of my neck. Maybe I should have let Liv tell this entire story. "Probably," I say. "I mean, it was trying to sneak out of the vent. Either the grate held or eye contact spooked it." I chuckle drily. "I mean, I can relate to that."

When he looks at me, his face conveys nothing short of sheer terror. "So we're going to  _ die _ ?" he asks, his voice a weak whisper. He looks like he wants to grab one of us, but he settles for hugging his arms tightly. He rocks back and forth slowly. 

I glance at Livi, trying to pawn this off on her. She stares back with the same expression on her voice. Great.

"We're not going to die," Livi attempts to say. Jason worries his lower lip. 

"There's something in the vents that wants to kill us," he mumbles. "And we're stuck here all night."

"That's not a guarantee," Livi says hesitantly. She drums her fingers against her collarbone. "It's not even… known what the thing is." 

Jason grabs Livi's shoulders and shakes her back and forth. "We're all going to  _ die _ !" he yells. I grab him and try to pull him away, but he seems intent on shaking some "sense" into her. It's nearly impossible.

"Get  _ off _ !" Livi says, yanking herself out of his grip. He stumbles back, and she smacks his forearm hard enough that it's audible. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

He's shaking like a leaf. "Fuck, fuck, I'm so sorry," he stammers, scrubbing his hands over his face. I guide him back a few more steps so that he's closer to the desk. "I'm- I-I-"

"What's everyone screaming about?" a very groggy, very annoyed looking Ed mumbles from the desk. We turn to look at him. He rubs his eyes slowly. "Where'd Hunter go?"

"We're all going to-" Jason says in a low whisper.

Livi cuts him off. "Hunter's getting his uniform on," she says, effectively drowning out Jason's paranoia. "The shift starts in… What, thirty-five minutes?" She checks her phone. 

"Maybe we should get ours on," Ryan says. He's quieter than Jason. Impending doom must be getting to him too. 

I nod. "Great idea, go join Hunter!" I say, tapping the larger box gently. "Blow off some steam." 

_ Now, please _ , is the unspoken addendum to that statement. The stress is making me want to scream and flap my hands, and I know that kicking Jason out of the room would help significantly. I wring my hands and flicker my gaze between Ed and Jason. 

Ed blinks blearily and shrugs. "I guess," he says, standing up. The chair rolls two inches to the left. He sticks his hand in the box and searches for a uniform big enough for his six-foot frame. I nod and step aside so the other two boys can reach the box, offering a silent prayer to whoever is out there that this all works out at the end. 

Livi stares at the camera monitor, tapping the button to switch between two cameras aimlessly. Hallway, arcade. Hallway, arcade. I stare at her until she looks back at me and point at the computer. 

"I was planning to watch the show stage, see his reaction," she says, shrugging. "It doesn't seem funny anymore." She taps her nails on the shelf. 

I nod. "You good, Jase?" I hear Ed ask Jason. "You look like you're about to cry."

"Uh-uh. I wanna go home," Jason mumbles, almost like a child. He has his uniform clutched to his chest like a beloved tie. "Like, now, please." 

"With our luck, they locked the doors," Livi mutters. I don't know if Jason hears her. I don't think anyone was meant to hear. 

Ed's the first person out the door, followed by a still shivering Jason and lastly by Ryan. Ryan hesitates in the doorway and picks something up. "Where did this come from?" he asks, holding the black object up for us to see.

It's one of the Fitbit bracelet things. I cross the room and take it from Ryan. "This must have been Hunter's," I say, after shoving my hand in my pocket to double-check that mine is still there. Mine rests in my pocket like a round stone. "I'll give it to him when y'all return."

"But what  _ is _ it?" Ryan says. He squints at it.

I shrug. "We all have one. Don't know. They're halfway down the hall, I think." I nudge Ryan gently towards the blue-lit hallway. He hurries to catch up with the other two boys.

The mood in the room shifts the moment they become nothing more than silhouettes. I sigh and slump over. Every nerve in my body is still crackling with electricity, but I'll take what I can get.

The room is silent except for the buzzing halogen lights and the whirring computer fan and the distant knocking in the vents - I swallow and try not to think about that, try not to look up at the vent in the ceiling - for quite possibly the first time. I take another steadying breath and try to clear my head, but while most of the anxiety is gone, there's just enough to be horribly distracting. 

We're all going to die, whispers the voice in my head. It's the same voice that tries to convince me that I'm not a lesbian, or that all of my friends hate me, or that I'm faking all of my talents. I puff out a breath and turn to the one remaining person in the room. 

"Liv," I say. 

"Hmm?" she responds, without looking at me. She's staring at the computer. There's a patch of dimly lit shadows on the hall camera, moving. The boys. 

"Do…" I inhale deeply. I hate that I have to ask this. "Do you think, we're actually going to die?"

She purses her lips, then shakes her head. "No," she says firmly, resolutely, maybe a bit snappy. A little  _ too _ firmly, I think, but I don't question it. "We'll be fine. Don't  _ you _ get started." 

I nod and say nothing, just rock back and forth gently.

"Absolutely, completely, fine," she says to no one but herself.  


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright," I say, breaking the silence that's fallen over the six of us. "Now that we're all settled-" mostly; I can tell that no one's really that calm - "what about making a plan?"

Hunter turns from the monitor he's perched at. "A plan," he echoes, with more than a hint of incredulity. "Based off what, I might ask?" 

I shrug, tapping the desk. "If you read the contract and other, like, company-issued information, you'd know they gave us a rough overview of what we're going to do." I start counting off tasks I remember off the top of my head. "Watching cameras, playtesting arcade games, tidying bathrooms…" I hesitate, picturing the contract in my head. "And whatever else they need us to do."

"Very specific," Hunter deadpans. I bite my lip. 

"It's at least an estimation," I say. "My guess is that we'll have five or six tasks a night, maybe?"

Hunter continues flipping aimlessly between cameras. There's no reason for that; we still have twenty minutes before anything should even be happening. "Five or six, hm?" he echoes. The clicking camera buttons fill the room. Too much noise, in my opinion.

I nod. "Thereabouts. We're kids, with zero training. We can't do anything too important, like rewiring an animatronic or something." And those robots are clearly in need of some repair, unless the glitch is part of their aesthetic. I don't see why it would be. How would any child _not_ be terrified of a sputtering, stuttering animatronic?

"You never know," Ryan chimes in. "They haven't told us anything."

I squint. "Aren't there legal things preventing that?"

"Something tells me this company doesn't exactly follow the law."

I sit down on the desk, crossing my ankles. "You… Aren't wrong." I get the feeling I know  _ exactly _ where he's coming from. My hands plant firmly next to me, shifting the papers I set aside earlier.  _ Do better next time!  _ peeks out from the bottom. I decide to look the case up later. None of us need the added anxiety right now. 

"I think we should just lay low for now," Livi says. "We don't know what we're doing, so let's just… Not." She points at the other monitor on the far wall, the one Jason is sitting by right now. "That's gotta be our connection to management. There's e-mail. That's it." 

"Maybe they'll send us the information we need?" Ryan says. He stands next to her. 

I nod. "That seems the most logical avenue, unless they leave, like, a checklist." I look dramatically at the stacks of papers on either side of me. "Which they didn't tonight."

"Five or six," Hunter says again. He finally turns away from the computer monitor. "I have a different idea." He gestures across the entire room. "Five or six activities? Then we're all on one. We'll get them done quickly enough and then spend the rest of the night in here. Easy enough."

I shake my head, chewing the inside of my cheek. "I don't think that's a good idea," I say hesitantly. 

Ryan nods. "I don't either," Livi says. 

Hunter crosses his arms. "Why not?" 

I look around the room, whistling a low note. "You read the contract,  _ right _ ?" I say slowly. "You saw the waiver?" I drum my fingers against the table. "There's a chance of personal injury or  _ death _ ." 

Hunter waves his hand off nonchalantly. "That's only if we fuck something up," he says, with a shrug. "If we go about this right, nothing's gonna happen."

I glance over my shoulder at Ed, who is very pointedly ignoring these deliberations over something on his phone, then back down at the seated Jason, who looks about to wilt. "I wish I could be so optimistic," I mumble, just barely loud enough for anyone to hear. 

Livi coughs deliberately. "Also, half of us - at least -" she waves her hand in a gesture that encompasses every single person in this tiny room- "have some kind of problem. Or four." 

I snap my fingers. "Yeah!" Maybe I shouldn't be so excited about this. "If someone were to have a…  _ another  _ crisis, while out there, alone, in the dark, surrounded by  _ those things _ …" I scratch my arms and swallow. "People could completely shut down… Or, worse, get violent."

Hunter arches his eyebrow. "And what would someone else do in that situation?" he says. 

"You'd be amazed," I grumble. "Maybe that's why you're such a…" 

The vents echo. I snap my head up. Between the grates, I think I see something glittering. Maybe it's my head playing tricks on me. I hope it's my head playing tricks on me. 

"And there's that," Livi says, after a long, long pause. 

The sounds fade again. They sound more like footsteps everytime I hear them. 

"Whatever that is," she continues, when no one speaks. She doesn't talk any further. No need to spook anyone any more than we've already done. 

Hunter frowns. "Pipes," he says firmly. "It has to be." I can feel his resolve cracking a little as he says that. There's no way he actually believes that. 

"Pipes that contain  _ something _ ," Ryan mutters. He has pulled his phone out and is fiddling with the pop-socket on the back. "It vanished when I shined the light on it." 

"You saw it too," Livi says, staring at him with an almost betrayed look. I get why - I'm feeling that a bit, too - but it seems almost hypocritical, in a way. We didn't tell anyone what we saw, not at first, at least. 

"It  _ vanished _ ," Hunter mutters. "I don't think it's real." 

I shoot a glance at Livi and Ryan. "You didn't tell him?" I mouth, and Ryan shrugs at me. Neither of them speak. We really must want Hunter to die. 

"I wouldn't say vanished," Ryan says after a pause. "It like, turned around. Ran away. Something like that." He drops his gaze to the pop-socket on his phone case. "It's white. And… Plastic-y." Turns the phone around in his hand. "Metal claws." 

I think of the two animatronics down the hall from us, the plastic orange and green cases on each of their bodies. If I remember correctly, you could sort of see the bits of metal endoskeleton at the joints, where the plastic can't cover. White plastic-y, metal claws. 

"It's an animatronic?" Livi says incredulously. 

"You're all hallucinating," Hunter mutters. He drums his fingers against the shelf and turns his attention back to the monitor. The camera is on the gray static of the kitchen. "Animatronic in the vents. There's only  _ two _ , and neither of them are white." Flick, flick, flick. He points at the pitch-black camera for the show-stage. "Which you could see if the damn lights were on." 

"It wants to kill us," Jason whispers. I flinch. We don't need to start this again. I can hear him shuffling to a straighter position. "If  _ it _ wants to kill us, does that mean the  _ other _ s-"

" _ You _ ," Livi says, cutting him off before he can finish that statement, "need to shut up. We've done this once. That's enough."

Jason winces like he's physically hurt. That  _ was _ a little harsh, but she's right. "Yes. We'll be fine," I offer, although it feels flat and meaningless. I bounce my legs off of the desk.  _ Thunk, thunk, thunk _ . It sounds like the noises from the vents. I stop immediately. 

"Sure," Jason says, also to himself. "A-OK." 

At least he's figured out he's the problem. 

" _ Anyway _ ," Hunter says, redirecting the conversation back to him for quite possibly the five hundredth time. "We have nothing to worry about. Everything's going to be fine,  _ especially _ if we get everything done as fast as we can. Which is why, when we find out whatever the hell we're supposed to be doing here, we'll each pick one."

I groan in dismay. Of course he isn't listening. 

"Did you just  _ not _ -" Livi begins. Hunter waves his hand and cuts her off. 

"You forgot something," he says, shoving his hand into his uniform pocket. "This  _ marvelous _ invention of the twenty-first century." Slowly, deliberately, he pulls out his black-cased iPhone 8.

Livi shuts her mouth. "Well," she says. 

The look on Hunter's face is one of complete, smug victory. I dig my fingers into the desk; if I don't, I might hit him. Or myself. 

"If anything  _ were _ to go  _ wrong- _ " he emphasizes words like he's speaking to a pair of children- "then we could do this  _ wonderful thing _ called  _ text someone, you idiots _ ." He dramatically unlocks his phone with his thumb and taps the messages icon. "On top of that, if something were to go  _ very wrong,  _ you can even, oh, I don't fucking know, call nine-one-one!" Seemingly satisfied with his little demonstration, he slips the phone back into his pocket. "Foolproof."

I bite my lip and stare at the ground, running through worst case scenarios in my head. If anything were to go wrong,  _ he _ 's the last person I'd think of texting. Fuck, Ed comes before him.  _ Jason _ , even. I shake my head slowly. "I fail to see your problem with the buddy system," I say to the floor tiles. 

"Speed," Hunter replies. If he tacks on a pet name, I'm actually going to strangle him. 

"Speed over safety," I mutter, looking up to glare at him. 

"For the last time, literally nothing's going to-"

"How about!" Livi says with artificial brightness. "How about…" She waits until both of us are looking at her before continuing. "How about we hold it to a vote?" She drops her hands. 

I nod excitedly. Maybe we won't kill each other this way. Hunter, however, does not seem so enthused. "There's six of us," he says drily. "What if there's a tie?" 

"Flip a coin," Livi says immediately. 

I nod again. "It's only fair," I say. Not that it'll stop us from killing each other. I think only something dramatic happening could fix that. 

Hunter sighs in concession. "Alright," he says. "Then we'll vote. All in favor of  _ your _ plan…" He points between Livi and I, even though really, the plan was mine. "Raise your hands."

Livi, Ryan, and I raise our hands. To certainly not my surprise, Ed and Hunter do not. 

"Alright, three," Hunter says. "And for mine?" 

Hunter and Ed raise their hands. I get the feeling I know where this is going. 

Jason has yet to lift his hand once. "You gotta vote, Jase," Ed says calmly. I try to remember this. Keeping them together would be a smart idea. They'll definitely be buddied up. 

Jason squirms. "Well…" he says, flicking his gaze between all five of us and back to the floor. "I don't know. Y'all both…" He picks at a crack in the tile, peeling at some dried rubber cement. 

"Take your pick," Hunter says. 

"Speed or safety," I say. 

"Speed  _ and  _ safety or safety and prolonged stress," Hunter retorts. 

I bite my lip hard enough to draw blood. I should remember to bring something else to chew on. 

Jason doesn't move. He shrugs. "I guess Hunter's," he says. 

Of course he does. I groan and hop off of the desk. "Dammit," I mutter. 

"Next question," Livi says. "Does anyone, uh,  _ have _ a coin?" 

Ed nods. "Gimme a second." He grabs his basketball shorts off the desk and stuffs his hand in one of the pockets. Eventually, he pulls out a shiny quarter and hands it to Liv. 

"Heads," Hunter calls. I click my tongue and nod. Livi holds the coin, stares at it for a second, and then tries to flip it. 

It falls pitifully off of her nails and lands on the ground with a pathetic tinkle, in the shadows just under the desk. I giggle a little. "What does it say?" Hunter says. I wonder if he'll contest that if it says tails.

Livi crouches, squinting at the coin. She doesn't say anything for a while as she's scooting it out from beneath the unit. No one else speaks either. We crowd around the desk, waiting for the answer. The room is nearly silent. 

A loud  _ ping! _ resounds across the room. We jump as one. Livi bashes her head against the edge of the shelf and hisses. The coin skitters out from under the desk. "Heads!" she says, rubbing the back of her head. 

Hunter grins as I groan. "Perfect," he says. I wouldn't agree. 

"There's a message," Ryan calls from the second computer. 

Hunter's smile only widens. He stretches, cat-like, and waves his hand at Ryan. "Go on, read it."

I step back to get a closer look and check my phone.  _ 11:59 PM _ . Time flies when you're at each other's throats. 

"Welcome to the family," Ryan reads, just as the time clicks to midnight. 

I back up from the shelf to see the second monitor better, then look up at Ryan, who is hitting a few buttons, then back down at my phone screen. 

"Welcome to the family," Ryan reads, "and congratulations… A few rules and regulations…"

The lights flicker, returning dimmer than before. 

Twelve A.M, reads the clock on my phone. 

The shift has begun. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> brief tw for injury towards the end

The metal drawer squeaks when I push it closed. I wince. And then I throw my head up to look at the vent, just in case I missed something. It's peacefully silent. 

I close my hand around my phone, which is lying facedown on the desk. I think I'd rather have  _ it  _ be in here. Then, maybe, I'd be less worried. At least we've figured out what makes it go away. 

They'll be fine, I tell myself, fiddling with the popsocket on my phone case. If anything were to go wrong, we'd know. There'd be no way for us not to find out. Still, I can't shake my anxiety. I swallow and pray the pit in the bottom of my stomach fades soon enough. 

"What time is it?" Hunter asks, drawing me back into reality. "This is… boring."

I have to agree with him. Literally nothing has happened yet. "It's… just about one," I say, checking my phone. "Nothing's happened yet?"

I refuse to look up at Hunter's face. "Of course not," he says, with a certain mocking lilt to his voice. "Nothing's going to." He hits the button on the cameras and flips past a couple poorly lit rooms. I squint at the screen. The hall flickers past; on it, something is moving. I rise and lean forward. 

"Wait, wait, wait," I say. I wave at the screen. "Go back. To the hall camera." 

Hunter raises his eyebrow. "There's nothing to look at," he says, fingers hovering over the touchpad. 

I shake my head and slip out from behind the desk. "No," I say. "There was… Something." I wave my hand again. "Go back."

Hunter doesn't move. "There wasn't," he says, but he drops his hand to the keypad. "I saw it." He turns around and flicks back to it, hesitantly. 

Something stares at the camera. Something very tall, and very wide, and very, very artificial stands and lists to the right and stares directly at the camera. In the dim light, it looks rust-red. It grins, lifelessly. 

I step backwards from the camera and hit the button myself to switch cameras. The screen shows the blue-lit arcade down the hall. Two people stand at various games. Livi and Ed. They're still intact. 

I take a deep breath to negate the sinking feeling in my gut. 

The dog animatronic  _ moves _ . 

"Well," Hunter says, any sense of mockery drained from his voice. 

"Something's happening," I say, staring at the people on the cameras. 

Hunter chuckles nervously. He flicks back to the hall camera. The dog no longer stares directly at us; in fact, it's lumbering down the hallway again. The only thing visible on screen is its frozen tail. Then, the camera glitches, and the robot is gone from sight. I swallow again. 

"Is it- it's not coming for us, right?" I say, with a nervous giggle of my own. "That's..."

Hunter hits the camera again, this time changing to the corner hallway right outside the bathroom. The dog has now stopped; it stands right outside the men's room. One huge paw is held up, like it's holding an imaginary plate. Its glassy eyes stare at the wall. 

I chew my lip until it hurts. "What are we going to do?" I mumble, rubbing my chin. 

Hunter shakes his head. "Wait until it gets here and shut the door, I guess?" he says, flicking away to a different camera.

"But what about the others?" I hiss. "If Ryan and Jason- they're trapped right now! They can't get out!"

Hunter waves his hand. "I'm sure they'll be fine," he says, his voice unnaturally monotonous. He shoves his other hand in the pocket of his uniform. "I'm sure-" he swallows- "sure that the warnings in the email were about breaking them, not them breaking us." He shoves me aside so that he is standing squarely in front of the monitor. "Everything's going to be completely fine."

I peer over his shoulder. He's looking at the black show stage camera. I squint, but it's too dark to see anything beyond the silhouette of a party decoration hanging from the ceiling. If one moves, the other…

I dart to the right most doorway, the one with the hall leading directly to the show stage. My phone light will suffice. I shine it down the hall, but nothing shows up. There's nothing over there.

So the dinosaur must still be onstage. Maybe it can't move. I take a deep breath. "Is it still there?" I say, poking my head hesitantly out into the emergency-lit hallway. 

"Mhm," Hunter says. "I can't find the other."

I hear the vents echo above me and squeeze my eyes shut. Oh, God. It can't be as bad as it seems. Not yet. It's too early in the night. 

_ [ Don't leave the bathroom yet ]  _ I text Ryan. 

_ [ It's MOVING ] _ I text Livi. 

_ [ what do you mean? ] _ Ryan replies. 

_ [ ???? ] _ replies Livi.

 

**Ryan**

**1:05 AM**

 

[ its a long fucking story and youre not gonna believe me ]

[ we kinda have to get back ]

[ theres ]

[ uh ]

[ is it??? ]

[ the??? ]

[ the thing in the vents???? ]

[ yeah ]

[ i think ]

[ i can hear something ]

[ idk what it is ]

[ jase is gonna freak out again ]

[ fffffffuuuckkkkk ]

[ if you leave ]

[ you will die ]

[ i think ]

[ WHAT ]

[ MAYBE ]

[ dont tell jason that ]

[ please ]

[ but the dog is RIGHT outside the bathroom and uh ]

[ yeah ]

[ i ]

[ thats impossible ]

[ isnt it???? ]

[ but its happening ]

[ hunter refuses to go back to the camera so i cant show you yet ]

[ but yeah ]

[ they told us to avoid the animatronics ]

[ since they would ]

[ ,,,they never explained what they would do ]

[ right? or am i misremembering ]

[ ryan? ]

[ uh ]

[ you there? ]

[ ryaaaaan???? ]

 

**Livi**

**1:10 AM**

[ KRIS ]

[ EXPLAIN ]

[ WHAT IS MOVING ]

[ CALM DOWN ]

[ i was texting ryan ]

[ SKSKSK ]

[ YOU CANT DO THAT TO ME ]

[ SORRY ]

[ the dog ]

[ WHATS MOVING ]

[ what ]

[ the dog!!! moves!!! ]

[ its uh ]

[ camped outside the bathroom rn ]

[ omg ]

[ wait ]

[ it should be shut down??? ]

[ yeah shouldnt it??? ]

[ but its not ]

[ we saw it move ]

[ oh fuck ]

[ okay ]

[ thats cool ]

[ thats great ]

[ love that ] 

[ i think if you avoid it you should be good ]

[ i think ] 

[ lemme force hunter to change cameras ]

[ what about the other? ]

[ you know where that one is? ]

[ ,,,no but we dont think its left the stage ]

[ when are you going to be done? you should get back here ]

[ idk, ten-ish minutes ]

[ the games busted ]

[ wait i think i heard something ]

[ ten minutes? ]

[ thats an eternity ]

[ heart what? ]

[ liv? ]

[ livi? ]

 

**Ryan**

**1:13 AM**

[ holy fuck ]

[ has the bitch left yet ]

[ please kris ]

[ THANK GOD ]

[ i thought ]

[ i was texting liv ]

[ yeah no no not yet ]

[ jasons about to die again ]

[ wait what???? ]

[ NOT LITERALLY ]

[ hes ]

[ curled up in a ball in the first stall rn ]

[ the one with the busted door ]

[ fuck ]

[ what happened? ]

[ ill tell you when we get back ]

[ if i we can get back ] 

[ has it left? ]

 

**Livi**

**1:16 AM**

[ shut the door. now. ]

[ what why ]

[ just do it ]

[ ??? what about you guys?? ]

[ kris shut the fucking door ]

[ now ]

[ kris ]

 

Something clatters shut. I snap back into reality. 

Hunter stands by the door, hand slammed into the button next to it. His chest heaves with fearful gasps. "It just… showed up," he pants. 

I nearly drop my phone. "Th-the dog?" I ask. 

Hunter nods with the reticence of someone who refuses to believe his own eyes. 

I stare at my black phone screen. The blue notification light blinks. No wonder she wanted me to shut the door. 

"How did we not hear it?" I say breathlessly. "It was so loud earlier…"

Hunter shrugs. Slowly, hesitantly, he peels his fingers off of the button. "Ten minutes," he says. He throws a glance over towards the other door. 

"I mean- I'd feel better if-" I stammer. 

Hunter just nods. I slowly cross the room, shine my phone light into the hallway, and shut the door. It, too, clatters shut. It protects us from nothing, and only temporarily, but the sense of respite it gives me is enough to make me relax. 

"Why was it coming here?" I say, shoving my hand in my pocket. 

Hunter shrugs. He stares out the window. 

"It could have explored some of the party rooms…" Or the arcade. I'm glad it didn't. "But it came directly here. Where the people are supposed to be." 

Hunter shrugs. He doesn't tear his gaze from the dirty glass.

"Do you think that was on purpose?" The words fall out of my mouth faster than I can process them. "Do you think it meant to come here? Do you think it wanted-"

"Kris," Hunter says, "shut the fuck up." He balls one hand into a fist and presses it against the glass. The other hand holds his phone. He lifts the flashlight to the silhouette in the dark. 

The lifeless orange plastic face stares back at us. It grins. It weaves its head back and forth, back and forth. Its fat orange fingers wave at us. The shadow on the wall is wagging its tail. 

It looks like it's mocking us. But that's impossible. 

"No," I say, tilting my chin up defiantly. "I-I want answers."

"And I don't want to think about this right now," Hunter snaps. 

I bite my lip. There's going to be a permanent red spot there by the time this week is up. If I open my mouth again, Hunter very well could kill me, and I'm not in the mood to die. 

I stare at the grimy window and the rocking figure hidden in shadow once again. At least he'd be less painful.

 

The dog turns and lumbers off a minute before the doors slide open automatically, loudly.

I hold my breath. 

It doesn't turn around.

Can it hear?

I don't want to find out.

_ [ hurry ] _ I text Ryan and Livi as soon as Hunter affirms it's rounded the corner.

_ [ please ] _

 

Jason's nose is bleeding. Ryan's hand is turning purple. Ed's phone is cracked. Everyone is talking. It sounds like they're all screaming.

I cover my ears with my hands and wait for someone to shut them up, because no one's going to listen to me. 

"What do you mean?" Hunter says. His voice cuts through the bickering like a hot knife through butter and it hurts even more than the screaming, somehow. "You got  _ attacked _ ?"

Jason glowers at Hunter. At least he's not anxious anymore. "Why do you think I'm bleeding?" he mutters, his voice muffled from pinching his nose shut. 

Hunter opens his mouth to speak, then changes his mind at the last second, then tries again. "By  _ what _ ?" he says. 

Jason points up and says no more. 

I glance up at the vents and swallow. The memory of  _ it _ in the bathroom replays in the back of my head: one unblinking yellow eye, glinting metal claws, and the horrific screech of the bending metal. 

"Oh, for Christ's sake," Hunter mutters. "There's a vent in the bathroom. There's no way it got out-"

"It got out," Ryan says, quietly, unsure. He sits on the floor, knees pulled to his chest. "It… It pushed the cover out." 

I look up at the grated vent in the office ceiling, at the four shiny screws in it.  _ Surely that's impossible _ , I want to say, at complete risk of sounding like Hunter.  _ The thing's sealed shut. It would have to have superhuman strength. _

But it's not human. It's an animatronic. Or maybe it's just a robot. I curl my fingers into the cloth of my pants. 

"It  _ what _ ?" Livi says. She looks warily at the vent above us, then at me. Tilts her head over her shoulder. I have no idea what she's getting at. "That  _ should _ be impossible!" she says. "The grate held in our bathroom…" She trails off. 

Ryan shrugs, quite aggressively. "I don't know? Maybe this one was rusted? Fuck, man." He pulls the pop socket out. "We were just chilling, trapped in the bathroom, waiting for… that fucker to leave, when  _ suddenly _ -" he's about as intense as I've ever heard him be- "there're these three pop noises and the grate crashes down and with it…" He shakes his head. "Fuck, man, I don't even-"

He turns to Jason, as if searching for guidance. Jason's eyes are wide and he's shaking his head. "No," he mumbles. " _ Fuck _ no."

Ryan sighs. "It… Dangled. Like… Fuck." He scrubs his hand over his face. "It was half out of the vent, and it spun, like, half its torso-" he gestures at the upper half of his own chest- "until it was facing us, and it had a white face, teeth… It… It's an animatronic? I think?" 

"I refuse to believe that," Hunter says quietly, more to himself than anyone else. "That's just impossible."

Ryan, pointedly, ignores him. "Anyway, it- it was like, opening its mouth, and it swung for Jase, but…" He picks up his phone, turns it over in his hand. "I flashed the light in its eyes-eye, it only has one, and it curled up and ran away." He sighs again. " _Fuck_. We could actually have _died_."

I'm torn between comforting Ryan and keeping my distance. I inch closer to him, one eye on the vents the entire time. But there's no sound this time, nothing to suggest the mysterious animatronic is anywhere near here. 

That makes it worse. 

I sit down next to Ryan and rest my head on his shoulder. 

"You didn't," Livi says. "That's, uh, a good thing."

"And you're not going to," Hunter says. But he's lost some of his edge. Maybe he's finally come to terms with what's really going on here. 

"I'm going to kill something," Jason mutters. His voice is wavering. But he hasn't cracked yet.

_ Not if something kills you first.  _

I hate that that's my immediate thought. 


	6. Chapter 6

_ fazbear entertainment _ , I type into google. 

_ 35,600,000 results _ , it returns. I do what one always does and click on the Wikipedia page. 

There's nothing interesting. I stare blankly at the massive wall of text that makes up the header. 

_ Company History - Murders _ is the first thing that stands out _.  _

I hover my thumb over the blue link. Maybe I should save that for a time that isn't 2:17 in the morning. Maybe when the sun is in the sky. Or the lights are on. Or we aren't being hunted by a dog animatronic currently posted outside a firmly shut door. 

Someone taps my shoulder. I jump and hang on to my phone by the pop socket. But it's just Liv. 

"Don't do that right now," I say. "Seriously, I was so scared-"

"The door's- Nevermind." Livi waves her hand. "I have to pee."

I stare at her. "Why, exactly, did you feel the need to tell me this?" I say, cocking an eyebrow. 

"You're the only one who  _ can _ come with me," she says. "Without being stuck outside, that is. And if  _ you _ didn't want to go alone before…" She hesitates. "Look, I'm not going to  _ ditch _ you." She stares up at the vent, drumming her nails on her phone case. 

"So you aren't mad at me anymore?" I say, with a bit more hope than I intend. 

"Oh, no, I'm still mad," she says. She stabs a finger at me resolutely. "Don't even  _ think _ -"

"I didn't originally," I say, ironically without even thinking. I seem to have located my problem.

"You know what I mean." She now presses her finger against the tip of her nose. "Anyway, we'd have to- move on, I guess, since neither of us  _ really _ want to die." 

That's a fact. I nod, peering around her shoulder to look at the window. There's no shadow in the glass; the dog must have left again. "When the doors open up, we should be good," I say. "I think it's walking down the hallway."

"Hm." Livi steps back from the desk, trailing her fingers on the papers scattered across it. One of the newspaper clippings slides loose. The ink scrawled next to it is splattered with little droplets of blood from Jason's injury.  _ Do bettor next tome!  _ it now reads. I tuck the paper back into the pile. 

The door springs open. "We're going to the bathroom," Livi tells Hunter. Hunter remains hunched over the camera monitor and doesn't even acknowledge her. I scramble away from the desk towards the doorway and look over my shoulder at Ryan. He nods at me. At least someone knows we're here. 

Livi's waiting just outside the door, hesitantly. I skitter over to her and past a sleeping Jason. Good. He needs the nap. 

"We should make it quick," I say, continuing right past her. "We don't want to get trapped again." 

She shakes her head. "We have, like, an hour before it's going to come back." Despite this, she's hurrying. Faster than I am, at that. 

I glance up at the ceiling, which remains ominously quiet. "That's… Not the thing I was talking about," I say. I've fallen behind. "But okay, that works too."

" _ So _ ," Livi says, a little out of breath from walking so fast, "what were you looking at back there?" She's changing the subject. "All I saw was murder, which is a little sus." 

I speed up so I'm a few steps ahead of her. "For me it ain't," I say at first. 

She makes a noise of agreement.

We pass the blue-lit arcade. I poke my head in, but Ed's not there. I can't remember what his current task is, but I try not to think about that. I'm sure he's fine. It's been far too quiet for anything to have happened. "It's the company Wikipedia page," I say quietly. "Something about this… It's familiar, but I can't-"

" _ This _ company?" Livi asks. I catch up with her again. "As in, Fazbear Entertainment?" 

She looks… concerned. Maybe this was a mistake. I nod, clicking my tongue. "Yeah, I had a feeling-"

"Ah," she replies, coolly. "Lovely." 

We stop at the bathroom. She grabs the doorknob, but doesn't open it. "How big of an incident- Like, if someone just died in a location, it wouldn't be Wikipedia-worthy. Right?" 

I shrug. "I guess," I say. I shove my hand in my pocket and grab my phone. "I mean people probably get shot in McDonald's all the time. So that's… not a good sign." 

Livi opens the door quickly, hesitates at the entrance, and then steps inside. I stare around her at the seemingly empty room, listening. Nothing happens. The vents remain silent and dark, as they have for over an hour. I ease the door shut as quietly as I can to avoid attracting anything's attention. I don't like the quiet. It's not trustworthy.

"It's probably not as bad as we're thinking," I say quickly. 

"Only one way to find out," Livi mutters. She disappears into one of the stalls, the one further from the dented vent. 

I tap my fingers on the back of my phone case. "I guess," I say. 

Something taps through the vents. I freeze, fingers hovering over the dimming screen and eyes hovering at the dented vent. Nothing shows. 

"I really, really don't like  _ that _ ," I mutter to myself, before unlocking my phone again and beginning to read aloud.

 

**Accidents and Incidents**

 

_ Fazbear Entertainment has had several problems with on-site accidents that result in injury or death to the victims, as well as a string of murders at the original locations. The incidents played a significant role in the company shuttering its doors for almost twenty years in 1995 and were the reason behind the failed horror attraction  _ _ Fazbear Fright _ _.  _

 

_ The first accident occured at the very first location,  _ _ Fredbear's Family Diner _ _ , in 1983. The youngest son of one the company's creators was caught in the mouth of the performing animatronic Fredbear and could not get out before the robot's jaws closed, crushing his skull and giving him traumatic brain damage. The boy died shortly after the incident, and Fredbear's Family Diner closed afterward for safety inspections. The two golden animatronics were deemed unsafe for use and sealed away.  _

 

_ A few years after Fredbear's closing, Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opened up in the midwestern United State. The murders began at this location. Five young children went missing, and four bodies were discovered within the four main animatronics after they began to smell and leak bodily fluids. The fifth was never found, and neither was the murderer. The animatronics were scrapped and once again, the location shut down. This was not for long, however. Freddy Fazbear's Junior, with the new line of Toy animatronics designed to prevent further incidents such as these opened in 1987. These did not prove useful, as later that year, someone used a leftover suit from the old diner and lured a child into the back. That was not the incident to trigger the closing of the restaurant: shortly after, a guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald, who was monitoring the animatronics was bitten by the Toy Foxy model, and from then on, the restaurant was shut down.  _

 

"A  _ guard _ ?" Livi says, cutting into the reading. She flushes the toilet. "A  _ guard _ got bit during the  _ day _ ?" 

I nod, before realizing she can't see me yet. "It looks like it," I say. "That certainly bodes well."

Liv steps out of the stall and makes a beeline for the sink. "Why didn't they tell us this?" she says. 

I shrug. "Uh, it  _ was _ thirty years ago," I say, hesitantly. "Maybe they figured that there was less danger now, better technology." I glance down at my phone. "There's a picture of the animatronic that bit Jeremy before the incident." Beat. I squint at the tiny picture. It's white, fox like, and more of a mess of parts than an actual animatronic. "Looks harmless." 

"Lemme see," Livi says. She grabs a few paper towels and looks over her shoulder at me. I show her the grainy photo onscreen. She looks at the picture, then at me, then at the picture again. " _ Harmless _ ?" She tosses the paper towels into the trash can. "Look at its  _ teeth _ ! And also the wires..." Dry laugh. "I wouldn't trust my kid around that thing."

"It's kinda cute," I mumble. I zoom into the picture and examine the photo more closely. The colors are super faded, but I can tell its visible eye is yellow. The other eye is either shut or empty. 

Livi's started for the door already. "Come  _ on _ , Kris," she says, nails tapping against the door handle impatiently. "We need to get back before it comes."

"Wait a sec." I hold up my hand and don't look over at her. "What did Ryan describe? Something… Something white and dangly." I lift my head, tapping the back of my phone. "This thing here… It's white and could  _ probably _ , like, dangle."

Livi arches her eyebrow in disbelief. "There's a thirty year old rabid animatronic fox in the vents," she deadpans.

"Maybe not that exact  _ model _ ," I say, suddenly sheepish. "But it might be the same character. Maybe they wanted to rework it or something. Reuse parts, or an endoskeleton design, or something." 

Livi shakes her head. "I doubt it," she says. "That just doesn't make sense. Why would they pick the one that straight up bit a guard?"  
I shrug. My gaze has drifted back to the phone, this time on the gallery section of the Wikipedia page. I scroll through it. There's another picture of the Toy Foxy animatronic, this time more clearly as a mess of wires and crossbeams in the corner of an old room. Then there's a poster of the Toy animatronics, but Toy Foxy is completely intact this time. White face, yellow eyes. I chew my lip. It can't be a coincidence. 

Livi opens the door, then slams it shut again. I jump and almost drop my phone.  _ Thank god for the popsocket _ , I think. "What the hell?" I sputter.

"There's  _ something out there _ ," she hisses. 

I freeze, listening for something. It sounds like something's breathing outside. I look at Livi and bite the inside of my cheek. "What is it?" I whisper, so as not to alert whatever it is. 

Livi shrugs. "It's tall and white-ish, I think, and-" Suddenly, she stops, because whatever it is is knocking very gently on the door. 

I hold my breath. Involuntarily, I look over my shoulder at the dented grate. The vent echoes ever so quietly. 

Something glitters.

"You good in there?" Ed says, and Livi and I deflate like popped balloons. An ironic grimace crosses her face. She laughs drily. 

"We're  _ fine _ !" she calls. I can't help it; I'm laughing, too. I scrub my hand over my face and grin wryly. The clock on my phone tells us it's 2:27 in the morning. Maybe Jason has the right idea, taking a nap. 

Livi shakes her head, pressing her fingers against her temple. "We're just that dumb, apparently," she says, with an almost musical sigh. 

I laugh. "I mean, I mean," I stutter, "I mean we're being… Well, y'know." I take a steadying breath and look over my shoulder, at the vents. 

Something flickers again, like a shade fluttering over a light. 

"You almost done in there?" Ed says. "Ry told me to walk back with you guys. Since I was coming this way anyway." Pause. "And I kinda wanna get back, like, now." 

"One sec!" Livi says. She tugs the door open, then appears to notice that I haven't moved. "Are you… coming?" 

That draws me away from the flickering light and into reality. I jump and turn back to her. "Yeah, we definitely should, uh-" I glance back over my shoulder- "skedaddle, like, now." 

"Skedaddle," Livi echoes with a hint of mockery. "Really." 

A burst of static exudes from the vents. The grate whines. 

I don't turn back. Instead, I push Liv towards the exit a little harder than I intend to. "Skedaddle!" I say. 

The door clicks shut behind us, leaving us safe from the thing in the vents. Ed points, wordless and puzzled, but I choose not to answer him. He should know by now. 

"So, what exactly were you doing again?" I say instead, jamming my fists into my pockets. 

Something clatters to the ground in the other bathroom. This time, Livi is the first to move. 


	7. Chapter 7

We hurry back to the office. Jason remains asleep in the corner, Hunter sits next to the cameras, and Ryan leans against the other monitor, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. I scurry across the office to him and sigh, heavily. 

"Did something happen?" he says quietly. 

I blink down at my phone, playing with the popsocket. "I'll tell you later," I say, with all the intent of doing so. "When it's not two-thirty in the morning." I rest my head on his shoulder. 

He hums. "Don't want him to know, or-"

"It's not something that _happened_ ," I say, choosing my words carefully. "Just something I learned." 

I don't think that makes him feel any better. "I'm sure it won't have any effect on us," I say quickly, and then I shut my eyes.

I think of the newspaper articles on the desk, the prizes won by the teenage employees, and wonder if that's really the case. 

 _Lured into the back room by a man in a suit. Lured away from parents by the prospect of a prize._ They have the same basic idea. I wonder who the kids from that article were - are, I don't know that they're dead. They must still be alive. The company would have sunk again without it. 

I open my eyes and stare at the vent in the ceiling. I think I hear something, but I can't be sure. The rogue animatronic - Toy Foxy? - is another problem, sure to affect us. Especially if it already attacked one guard. What's to stop it from attacking six?

Maybe I should stop this train of thought before it goes anywhere. 

I hear Livi sitting down on Ryan's other side. "Is there seriously nothing left to do?" she asks.

"Mhm," Ryan says. "Unless we get another e-mail."

"Nothing to do but sit and survive," I mumble into his shoulder. "For what… three and a half hours?"

"Easy enough," I hear Hunter say. "We'll take turns watching the door."

I trail my fingers along the ground, tracing circles in the dust. I wish I could believe him when he calls this easy. I don't think that will last.

 

By some miracle, I am proven wrong, and six AM arrives after an agonizingly long three hours. No one leaves the office more than they have to, and no one tries to enter the office more than once every forty-five minutes, and even _it_ is easily warded off by a shut door and silence. 

The second monitor chimes like a grandfather clock. Every last light flares on in all its fluorescent glory. It's like someone flicked a switch.

One by one, everyone's head pops up like a family of meerkats. "Is it really six?" Jason asks blearily. He woke up an hour ago, but he hasn't left his corner. "We can leave?" I watch him pull himself to his feet and dust off his uniform pants.

"I think," Livi says. She stands as well, stretching to crack her back. "That was…"

"Easy," Hunter states. "Boring - for the most part." He shakes his head. "I don't… Well, it can't get much harder." Beat. "Can it?"

I stand and reach out to help Ryan up. "We still have an animatronic that hasn't activated," I say. "Unless the dog was a glitch."

"And the thing in the vents," Livi says. She looks at me for a moment, then looks away. "Whatever it is."

"I wonder why it stopped coming here," Ryan muses. 

"Got tired? Broke down?" I offer. _Had to pull itself back together?_ "Who knows. It did. And that's all that matters." 

Ed slides off the desk with little grace. "Speaking of _tired_ ," he says, breaking into a huge yawn, "I dunno about you guys, but I'm just _wiped_." He grabs his phone and unlocks it. "I'm dipping. Need me to take you home, Jase?"

Jason nods quickly. I turn to Livi and Ryan who I came here with, cock an eyebrow, and ask, "So am I hitching a ride with y'all? Or do I need to call an Uber on my own?"

Livi shakes her head. "You live far enough away, call your own." Now, it's her turn to yawn. "Jesus Christ…"

I nod. "Aite then. But let's wait together." 

She agrees mid yet another yawn. "M'of course."

Ryan grabs my wrist. "What is it you were gonna say earlier?" he asks. 

I've completely forgotten, so I stare at him blankly for a solid thirty seconds before it clicks. "Oh! The murders!" I say, snapping my fingers. "I'll text you, after I wake up." Deliriously, I grin and comb my fingers through my messy hair. "There's a lot."

"Not really," Liv interjects. "I mean, we were in the bathroom for what, five minutes?" 

I wave my hand. "I need time to think about the theories," I say. "I'll get back to both of you. Later. After I sleep. After we _all_ sleep." I point assertively at both of them. "Y'all _better_ sleep. Now that we-"

"Murders?" Hunter says, apparently just processing what I said. "What murders?"

I wave my hand to dismiss him. "It's probably nothing," Livi says. "I can tell you later." She takes out her phone to check it. "I have your number."

"I don't remember giving it to you," Hunter mumbles. 

"You should sleep," Livi says quickly enough. "You were on those cameras a _lot_." She sounds like she's talking to a small child. It doesn't appear to be working; Hunter is staring at her quizzically. 

"You know keeping things from _us_ isn't going to help anything," he says.

"It's really nothing," I say quickly. "If it amounts to anything, we'll be sure to tell you."

Hunter pauses at the door, drumming his fingers against the frame. "If you say so," he says, and then he's gone.

" _Why_ would we tell you anything if you aren't going to listen?" I mutter, once I'm certain he can't hear me. 

Livi shrugs. "He kinda has a point though," Ryan says, scratching the back of his neck.

"He does. But he's still a hypocrite." I pull my phone out of my pocket. "He still barely believes that we're in danger. And _he's_ the one in charge of the door!"

Ryan nods hesitantly. "I guess…"

"Come _on_ , guys," Livi says, perched at the door.  "Really looking to get out of here."

And so we exit. I cast one glance over my shoulder, at the vent up above, just to be safe, of course. I don't expect to hear anything. And I don't. 

"Kris? What _are_ you doing?" Livi calls from halfway down the hallway.

I race to catch up with them.

  


**Livi, Ryan**

**5:07 PM**

[ OKAY SO ]

Ryan

[ heck finally ]

[ you slept late ]

 

Livi

[ good morning? ]

 

[ ngl I kinda uh ]

[ forgot ]

[ until I went to Google something and saw the wikipedia page ]

 

Ryan

[ so what happened? ]

 

Livi

[ murders ]

[ so many murders ]

 

Ryan

[ oh shit ]

[ how did you learn this? ]

 

[ the joys of wikipedia ]

[ screenshots incoming ]

 

Kris has sent an image.

Kris has sent an image.

Kris has sent an image.

 

Ryan

[ oh shit ]

 

[ so that's that ]

 

Livi

[ there was also the guard being bit ]

[ toy foxy? ]

 

Ryan

[ the WHAT being WHAT ]

 

Livi

[ during the day too ]

 

Kris has sent an image. 

 

Ryan

[ hdjakfksjfkskd ]

[ how do we know this is real ]

 

Livi

[ we dont ]

[ wait we dont ]

[ this could just be someone trashing a wikipedia page kris ]

 

Kris has sent an image. 

 

[ ah shit you're right ]

[ wait hold on ]

 

Ryan

[ THATS IT ]

 

Livi 

[ ??? ]

[ what's it ]

 

Ryan

[ VENT THING ]

 

[ theres like a fuck ton of news articles from the 90s ]

[ so I think this is real ]

 

Livi

[ SKSKSKKSKS ]

[ QHAT THE FUCK ]

 

Ryan 

[ THATS IT I ]

 

[ holy FUCK dude ]

[ that's the one that bit the guard ]

 

Ryan

[ WELL SHIT ]

 

Livi

[ fantastic ]

 

Ryan

[ WERE GONNA DIE ]

 

Livi 

[ I was really hoping that wasnt it ]

 

Ryan

[ NICE KNOWING YALL ]

 

[ me too liv ]

[ hey at least well die together ]

 

Livi

[ yeah all at once ]

[ I wonder if itll be quick lmao ]

 

Ryan

[ god I hope ]

 

[ lemme check ]

 

Livi 

[ kris you're not seriously ]

 

[ I write my search history is already fucked ]

 

Ryan

[ what if we turned into cyborgs instead of dying ]

 

Livi

[ it's a thirty year old robot not a vampire ]

 

Ryan

[ would be cool tho ]

 

Livi

[ maybe a little ]

 

[ bad news ]

[ Jeremy did not die of his wounds for months ]

[ actually he killed himself]

[ so uh ]

 

Ryan

[ cyborg sounds nice ]

 

Livi

[ I really didnt need to know that ]

 

Ryan

[ so we're being stalked by a homicidal robot ]

[ just a typical day at work ]

 

[ potentially two! ]

 

Livi

[ hahaha ]

 

Ryan

[ definitely* two ]

 

Livi 

[ kris are you being dropped off at my place again? ]

 

[ mhm ]

[ later tho ]

 

Livi

[ obviously ]

[ we dont have to be there till eleven thirty tonight ]

 

[ OH ]

[ before I forget ]

Livi 

[ ??? ]

 

Ryan

[ what? ]

 

[ i found some more sus shit earlier ]

[ also on wikipedia naturally ]

[ apparently the old CEO died last year and now no one knows anything about the new one but this, not even a name ]

 

Kris has sent an image. 

 

Livi

[ what's suspicious about that ]

[ just a generous old dude ]

 

[ I'm not done ]

[ I dont have a picture but I found some weird newspaper articles last night ]

 

Livi 

[ ...okay? ]

 

Ryan

[ so the boss is a pedo too??? ]

 

[ maybe??? ]

[ one was about a manager or an owner or something getting acquitted ]

[ and then the other about some kids being awarded something ]

 

Livi

[ okay and ]

 

Ryan

[ so the boss is a pedo too ]

 

[ they were copies and they had "do better next time" and "like this" written on them ]

[ respectively ]

 

Livi

[ oh ]

[ gross ]

 

Ryan

[ got it ]

[ dont take the candy ]

 

[ yeah ]

[ I mean they could be unrelated ]

 

Livi

[ they could be ]

[ fuck I forgot to clean the bathroom ]

[ see ya later ]

 

Ryan

[ oop dinner ]

[ see ya ]

 

[ bye yall ]

[ if any of us make it out alive send flowers to our funerals ]

 

Livi

[ you got it ]

  


"You know," Ryan says, as we walk through the dim and quiet hallway, "I know we were joking earlier, but… What if we actually… y'know, _died_?" He freezes, staring at his hands. "Thinking about it…"

I stop as well and backtrack so I'm standing next to him. "Try not to think about it?" I offer, which is perhaps the least helpful and most pathetic advice I could possibly give in this moment. Needless to say, it does not do anything. I grab his hand. "Well, we know what's up. If we ignore Hunter's erroneous leadership and do what we think is best, then…" 

"Then?" Ryan asks.

"Then… Whatever is supposed to happen will happen." I sigh. "I can guarantee that." 

"Speaking of Hunter," Livi calls from the other end of the hall, "you think he's here?"

Ryan shrugs. "Probably not?" I offer, jogging to catch up with her. "I feel like we would have heard him by now. It's also, like, quarter after. We have fifteen minutes before we were supposed to get here." 

Livi seems to agree with that. "I guess." She stops in front of the office to let Ryan catch up and leans on the metal doorjamb. "Oh, show me the newspaper articles you found last night," she continues. "Maybe they don't mean anything."

I nod without hesitation. "Course. I already was-"

Something clatters in the darkness of the office, silencing me and Livi. Something heavier, clunkier, slams to the ground immediately after. Papers shift, slide, scatter. 

The dim hallway light reflects off of something metallic. Joints creak.

A yellow eye stares directly at us. 

Instinctively, I latch onto Livi's wrist, take four or five hurried steps backward. My breath catches in my throat. I should be reaching for my phone, but my right hand is shaking.

The robot - Toy Foxy? - twists farther. One yellow eye and now one tiny white speck bore into us. They get closer with the clicking of metal claws on linoleum floor. And so does a set of sharp metal teeth. 

Teeth and claws glitter in the dim lighting. 

Livi and I step back in tandem. She hits Ryan's chest, jumps, relaxes upon recognition.

"Do we run?" she hisses, turning her gaze back to the cavernous office and the creature inside. 

I shrug. I can see part of its face - white cheeks, pink lips, and the odd angle of its jaw. Another, smaller, duller set of teeth shines for a moment. "W-Where?" I stammer. Another step back. "The stage has _those_ two… Bathrooms are a death wish…"

Its movements are cat like, oddly smooth for a robot. I can see its entire head, its plastered grin. 

Static, snarl-like static, bursts from it. 

"Front," Ryan says in a breathless whisper. 

"Oh my God," Livi says the exact same way. 

But we don't move. We stand there, frozen, like three sitting ducks, as the robot slinks ever closer to us. It has another head hanging lifelessly from its torso. A limp bowtie is tied around its metal neck. Wires drip from its orifices like intestines from a walking corpse. 

It stops. It makes a different static noise. It is trying to speak. The words are meaningless.

I realize I don't hear anyone breathing.

The robot tilts its head and slips back onto its haunches. It's going to pounce. It's going to pounce. And we are going to die before the shift even started-

Ryan grabs my hand and bolts and that leaves me and Livi no choice but to follow. 

We sprint until we hit the glass windows of the lobby. I pull my hands from my friends and slide to the ground. My eyes remain fixed on the black hallway we fled from.

Nothing is there. Nothing visible, at least. It is coming, and coming fast. Its feet and claws echo around the walls. But I can't see it chasing us. 

Ryan taps my shoulder and points.

I look up.

The robot dangles from the ceiling of the hallway. Its mouth is wide open in a hungry grin. Its eyes look black in the light. Static, static, static. 

I stagger to my feet. Light, light, we need the light to ward it off, so I stick my shaking hand in my pocket and fumble for my phone and watch as the bot pushes itself forward, clinging to the ceiling and the top of the door frame. My phone's out of my pocket. It is now on the floor. I scramble to pick it back up.

Livi beats me to it. 

She thrusts her phone towards the animatronic, as close as she can get without taking a step. "Go the _hell_ away," she mutters in a shaking voice, more to herself than the dangling robot. " _Leave_."

The robot cries out in a different burst of static. It complies and vanishes into the darkness.

We don't move until we hear the sound of it thundering through the vents. Even then, the only movement is Livi and Ryan collapsing in frustration and fear. No one talks. I don't think anyone can breathe enough to. 

A few minutes pass in uneasy quiet. 

"O-Okay, what the _fuck_?" Livi says. She pushes herself to her feet. 

I shake my head. "How did that even _happen_?" I ask. "The vent in the office…"

"It pushed out the one in the bathroom," Ryan says. "No reason why it couldn't do that to this one…"

"We did hear something else fall," Livi concurs. 

I nod. Suddenly, I feel very cold. I tug at the sleeves of the black polo shirt. "We also heard it trashing the office. Incidentally, most likely, but still…"

"Then we have to clean up. Before the boys get here." Livi points at Ryan. "You're the tallest. Maybe prop up the vent cover or something. So it looks as normal as can be." 

"I take it we won't tell them, then," I say.

Livi shakes her head. "Only one of them will even believe us." She sighs. "Well, two, but Jase is Jase. Come on."

I check my phone. 11:23. We have been here for nary ten minutes and already almost died. I swallow and put my phone back into my pocket. "We have seven minutes, unless they get here early," I say. "Guess it's best to get back fast."

Livi nods. We look at Ryan, who is standing slowly. "New rule," he says, once we've begun walking. "No more jokes about death." 

"Agreed," I say, despite knowing that that is a promise none of us is going to keep away from him.

"Absolutely," Livi says in the exact same way. 

We walk back to the office in deafening silence.


	8. Chapter 8

Tonight starts off deceptively easy.

At most, we have three tasks more than last night, and most of them can be rolled together, except for one.

Cleaning the boy's bathroom.

Collectively, we ignore that one. Once again, Hunter steps into charge and refuses to let go of his post, so, begrudgingly, we let him divvy up the tasks with the knowledge that none of us are going to conform to them anyway. He gives himself none, I notice.

But I don't say anything. I don't think it's worth it. We really don't need to start anymore fighting.

So we split up to complete our job for the night. I sit down at the desk to complete the paperwork they have set aside for the night. 

I don't find it. 

Nor do I find the photocopied newspaper articles that I'd set aside last night.

I chalk those up to Toy Foxy's having trashed the office and move on.

  
By one, everyone has settled into the same routine as last night. Even Jason has gained enough courage to leave the office with Ed -- although there's a can of energy drink left in his corner that might be the cause of that -- and that means the only people left in the office are Hunter, Ryan, and myself. And there is nothing to do.

"Kris," Ryan says, and I guess there's one thing to do: talk. "Can you come here for a second?"

I put my phone facedown on the desk and push the chair away from it. "Mhm?" I say. Another thing to do comes to mind: sleep. But I don't feel safe enough to. "What's up, dude?"

Ryan points at the monitor, the one with today's email on it. "So I just noticed this," he says, poking his finger at a bolded and underlined paragraph on the screen, "and, uh. What do you think?" He drops his hand and drums his fingers on the desk.

I squint at the bright screen.

**Management would like to remind all workers that discussion of anything that is not company released information outside of work is strictly prohibited, as agreed to in the contract. Failure to abide by this simple rule can result in the contract - and your employment - being terminated** , it reads.

"Huh," I say. "That's… Well."

"Exactly!" Ryan replies in a hushed whisper. "It's- It's pretty sus. But…" He stares at the screen. "But it can't be about us, right?"

I shrug. "I mean, it- it could be? Like, that's exactly what we did last night- or- earlier, or whatever. Like…" I point at myself, scrunching my face up in confusion. "I found all those news articles and the Wikipedia pages and shit, and a couple conspiracy pages that I haven't shared with y'all. That wasn't exactly hidden info. Like, you'd think if they wanted to keep something a secret, they'd… Delete it all."

Ryan nods slowly. "I guess-"

"But it's still really fucking suspicious," I finish very, very fast. "Like, there's not that many locations, and there's not that many employees-" I start pacing, as if emphasizing my point- "and there's not that many night shift employees-"

"I thought Jase was the conspiracy theorist," Hunter mutters.

"Maybe, conspiracy wasn't exactly the right word." I wave my hand. "Anyway, it's…"

"Ridiculous," Hunter says. He hits the mouse button to stop his mindless camera flipping and turns to look at both of us. "The company's not spying on us."

I shrug. "Probably not, but this is a shady ass company…" I trail off and point my finger at the camera monitor. "Uh, what's that?"

Hunter doesn't move. "You know the internet," he says. "They probably just pounced on a story."

"What's that?" I say again, jabbing my finger at the screen again. "Dude, turn around."

"It's a problem," Ryan says.

Hunter stares at us in disbelief. "What do you mean?" he asks, as he turns back to the camera.

He flips away before we can get a closer look. "A glitch?" he suggests.

I shake my head and practically lunge for the trackpad. "I don't think so," I say, reaching over his shoulder to click back. "I know what I saw. And that was definitely not a glitch."

Hunter shoves me off. "What else could it have been?" he says. His voice wavers the tiniest amount. "That's what the other was last night?"

"Were you paying any attention?" I say. "We've been shutting the door all night long to keep it out!"

Hunter sighs. "I suppose so," he says, and hits the button to return to the camera we were just looking at. It's the one for the corner out the other door, the one closest to the office, and now there is nothing there. But I know what I saw: two glowing red eyes staring into the camera, shorter than the dog, completely motionless. It stood perfectly straight up. And now it is gone.

"See?" Hunter says, cocking an eyebrow at me. "There's nothing there."

"But there was!" I assert. "Maybe we can see it on one of the other cameras-"

Ryan coughs, drawing our attention towards him. He points out the door. "Uh," he says, and he points. I stumble away from Hunter and towards Ryan and follow his finger towards where he is pointing.

Two glowing red eyes stare down at us from the end of the hallway.

They don't move. They just stare, unblinking, just like they did at the camera.

I flick my glance to Ryan, who is now staring at me. "What is it?" Hunter says from the monitor.

"That," I say. Ryan nods. He turns back to the door; so do I.

The red eyes are closer.

_It's like a fucking Weeping Angel,_ I think.

Hunter steps away from the monitor and towards us. "Oh," he says, out loud, before slipping just behind me. "You saw that on the monitor."

I nod. "Yes-" I begin.

He slams the button to shut the door and retreats to his spot on the monitors. "I'm sure that we'll be fine," he says with a more solid waver this time. "We have the doors."

I stare at Hunter. "But what about the others?"

Ryan has already started to pull out his phone. "I think I got Jase's number," he mumbles. "We should warn them…"

"There's nothing we can do from here," Hunter says over top of him. "Warn them, I guess, but there's no need to worry them." He flicks to the only camera in the hallway the eyes float in and sighs. "It's still there."

I find myself barely listening to Hunter as usual. "Yeah, we definitely should," I say to Ryan. "Do you have his number?"

Ryan nods and shows me the contact. "Mhm."

"And it's not there anymore," Hunter says, although I don't think he meant to say out loud. "It's already moved. Into the show stage again." His voice has hiked half an octave. "It's fast, Jesus Christ…" He trails off into a whisper.

I hop back towards the desk and snatch my phone from it. "We don't have to worry about Ed, I don't think, cause Jase…" I think out loud, hurriedly unlocking my device. "He'll tell him anything." I sit atop the stacks of papers "So I'll tell Liv."

Ryan makes a noise of agreement.

**Livi**  
**1:39 AM**

[ hey dude! guess what ]

[ what? ]  
[ the other one moves too? ]

[ the other one moves too!!! ]  
[ yeah ]

  
[ fuck ]  
[ great ]  
[ where is it? ]

[ it was just in the other corner, y'know the one we havent gone too ]  
[ but then it wasnt ]  
[ its. its fast my dude ]

[ how fast??? ]

[ last hunter said it was back in the show area ]  
[ and literally a minute before that it was like ]  
[ halfway down the hallway? ]  
[ and you KNOW how long that hallway is ]

[ holy shit ]  
[ okay ]  
[ great ]  
[ lovely ]

  
[ idk where its going next!!! ]  
[ uhhh ]  
[ so when can yall get back to the office??? ]

[ im waiting on ed and jase ]  
[ jase had to pee ]  
[ because he drank like four monsters ]

[ o fuck ]  
[ but what about toy foxy??? ]

  
[ we decided that everyones just gonna use the girls room from now on ]  
[ not like its that much safer ]  
[ but theres less risk ]  
[ yknow everyone got jumped in there ]

[ ah ]  
[ smart ]  
[ soooo when are you getting back?? ]

[ idk ]  
[ they left maybe a minute ago ]

[ sooo where are you? ]

[ just outside the arcade ]  
[ i should be good tho ]  
[ theres no vents and the dog ignores this place ]  
[ ill just duck inside if i gotta ]

[ but the other might not!!!!! ]  
[ its definitely smarter to wait tho ]

[ ill be fine ]  
[ dont worry ]

[ dude theres literally nothing else to do ]

[ dont worry too much ]  
[ how about that? ]

[ well see ]  
[ so since theres nothing else to do ]  
[ how were todays games? ]  
[ there werent that many ]  
[ and also did you figure out what the whole thing about the bugs was? ]  
[ was it like,,, a game bug? or like actual ants? ]  
[ idk which is worse ]  
[ at least you could deal with the ants ]  
[ ...or you should be able to deal with the ants, but there's no spray or any shit ]  
[ i wonder where that stuff is??? ]  
[ liv? hello? ]

[ im here ]  
[ thought i heard something ]  
[ and i think its a glitch ]  
[ i left a note for the day shift people on one of the games ]

[ ah ]  
[ you did what you could i guess lmao ]  
[ what did you write? ]  
[ "this game is very broken and also i am scared"?]

[ lmaoo no ]  
[ i just said the games broken ]  
[ but i could add that ]

[ please ]  
[ maybe the dayshift will get our humor ]  
[ or maybe theyre like 87 and completely humorless ]  
[ i hope not that would be depressing ]  
[ at least it wasnt actual ants ]  
[ cause that would just be fucking wierd ]  
[ although,,, it wouldnt really surprise me??? given how gross this place is ]  
[ yknow? ]  
[ liv? you agree right? ]  
[ liv? ]  
[ oh you're typing ]  
[ or not ]  
[ uh ]  
[ livi? ]  
[ you good? ]

  
Livi has sent an image.

[ I DONT THINK SO ]

[ oKA Y THAT WAS FAST ]  
[ TEN MINUTES??? ]  
[ okay okay keep calm and keep an eye on it it wouldnt move when we looked at it ]  
[ maybe climb on one of the games??? ]

Livi has sent an image.

[ running is also smART GET BACK HERE NOW ]  
[ NOW PLEASE HURRY ]  
[ why is it so big it wasnt before was it ]

[ kdsfkjksdfhthowirutoihwr 93r sdf asdl;;"Apsdop p[dsfgodjpojsflfh ]

[ what ]  
[ liv??? ]  
[ liv what are you saying?? ]  
[ livi?? ]  
[ olivia? ]  
[ oh no oh no oh no oh no PLEASE tell me youre okay ]

 

Livi doesn't respond.

I think I'm going to cry.

I stare at the doorway, fingers digging into my knees. Every muscle in my body tenses. If someone breathed on me, I'd collapse.

Rigid, I sit there, my breath catching in my throat, praying to whatever god might be out there that everything's okay, everything's fine, except everything can't be fine because there's three murderous animatronics on the loose and one of them may have just eaten my friend and the thought of that pushes tears to my eyes and I let out a strangled whimper.

Someone puts their hand on my shoulder. "Has she responded to you?" Ryan says, and I can feel his anxiety spiking, and his hand that'd normally be comforting is shaking just a bit, and I shake my head and swallow hard to try and talk.

"N-no," I say, and I reach for my phone. It slips from my fingers and lands on the floor facedown so I can't see the notification light. "No, no, no, no." I shrug Ryan off and my hands fly to my face. "Ryan, what… What if-"

"Shh," he hisses. "Please!"

Something crashes in the distance. Words, I think, follow it, but they're too distorted for me to hear - or maybe my brain is just malfunctioning. I bury my head in my hands, gasp for air, try to relax the ever blooming panic in my chest because that sound definitely meant that she's dead and we're going to have to go on without her, oh God.

And then there's pounding footsteps - human footsteps - and ragged breathing - human breathing - and they keep getting closer and the door slams shut and I look up.

And now I think I _am_ going to cry, because Livi's alive. She's shaking like a scared puppy, she's bleeding from a wound on her head, and she's pressing her arm against her stomach, but she's alive.

She sinks to the floor right and wipes the blood of her face. She doesn't say a word. Her eyes are fixed on a crack in the linoleum floor. I hop off the desk and crouch next to her. It's hard to see.

"You, uh, you good?" I stutter after a moment.

She laughs. Or sobs. I can't really tell which. "I almost fucking died," she whispers. "I almost fucking died."

She covers her face with her hands and just breathes.

I scrub at my eyes. Ryan sits next to me. And we wait.

"But you didn't," I say, after a very long and very awkward pause. "That's… That's twice now you made it."

"Third time's the charm," she mutters pessimistically. She wipes the blood off her forehead with the side of her palm again and sighs, blinking rapidly.

"No," I hiss. "We-we agreed not to… in front of Ryan… Right?"

Livi swallows, laughs drily, then coughs. "Uh-huh," she says through gritted teeth. "S-sure. Ow."

"Are you okay?" Ryan asks tentatively.

Livi nods. "I will be," she replies, although she winces again when she takes another breath. She plants her hands on the ground, pushes to stand, and immediately collapses onto her right side with a very pained gasp.

I grab her left shoulder to help steady her. Panic flares back up again, like a pot boiling over. "What was that?" I ask, digging my fingers into her shoulder by accident.

She cradles her wrist to her chest. "It just gave out," she says, rubbing circles into the joint. "Or it got crushed. Or something, I don't even know, get off." Frustrated, she forcefully shrugs my hand off of her shoulder.

I don't really hear anything after _crushed_. "It got what?" I say.

"You heard me." Her breath hitches. "Fuck." She reaches up. "Help me up. Please."

I grab her hands to her pull her up. She stumbles to her feet and towards the desk to take a proper seat. I step back to give her space and smack into Hunter's back.

He'd been so quiet that I'd almost forgotten he was there. He jumps like I frightened him. "Watch out," he hisses.

"Now do you admit that we have a problem?" I ask him.

Hunter remains silent. "I guess," he says after a long pause.

"Dude, your head's bleeding pretty bad," Ryan says.

"Head wounds do that," Livi mutters indifferently. "I'm fine."

Hunter is looking back and forth between the hall camera and the arcade camera. I decide not to question him and turn back to the desk.

"There's gotta be a first aid kit somewhere," Ryan says, searching through the cabinets by the second monitor. I catch a glimpse of the inside of one and see nothing but a black metal shelf. "Maybe in the drawer?"

I shake my head. "It's empty," I say. I sit down on top of the desk. "Trust me, I know."

Livi wipes the trickle of blood off of her forehead, but beyond that she doesn't move. She fixes her eyes on some point on the desk and just stares.

"You okay?" I ask her, tapping my fingers at where her eyes are.

She laughs. There's nothing to laugh about. "I almost died," she says through a heavy breath. "What do you think?"

She lifts her head and squints at me, her breath catching. I dart my gaze away. "What even happened?" Ryan asks. He slides the cabinet door shut gently.

Livi shrugs. "It…" One of her arms presses against her stomach, but the other makes some sort of vague gesture. "I'll tell you later." She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and tenses. "Promise. But right now I think I need…"

She doesn't finish the sentence. Her eyes fly open and she sits bolt upright instead.

"Need…?" Ryan prods. I slip off of the desk.

"My phone," she says. She shoves her hands in her pockets, pulls them out again, pushes a bunch of papers to the side of the desk. "Where's my phone?"

I peer around the room, searching with her, but the only phone I see is mine. I still haven't picked it up, so I do so now. Livi looks hopefully at me. "This one's mine," I say. "Uh, sorry."

"Shit," she says. She taps her fingers on the desk. "It's not around there?" She pushes herself to her feet, then immediately sits back down again. "Anywhere?"

I shake my head. "I don't see anything." The only thing on the floor that I can see is a bunch of papers that she's pushed aside and off the desk. I kick them to look under them, but unsurprisingly, there's nothing there. "Nope. Sorry?"

"Maybe we can call it?" Ryan offers.

Liv shakes her head. "It's on silent, just in case they could hear it and fucking track me," she says. "There's no point."

"You sure it's not under the desk?" I say.

"Would you like to triple check for me?" she snaps. "It's not under there. Or in my pockets. Nor am I sitting on it. Any other brilliant ideas?" Her fingers tap the desk so hard that it sounds like she'll drill a hole into the metal.

I flinch. "Sorry…?" I say for the thirteenth time. "Where'd you have it last…?"

She shrugs. "It was in my hand. And then it wasn't. And I was in too much of a blind panic to pay attention…" Her sentence drops away. "...Fuck."

"Maybe you dropped it in the hallway?" Ryan says. He inches his way around the desk.

Livi presses her fingertip to her nose. "Fuck! Yes, I think I did." She practically collapses in her chair like a rag doll. "I'm not going back out there."

"I can do it," I say, in a moment of absolute genius on my part, as I am utterly petrified of losing my life to one of those things and going out there is the fastest way to put myself in danger. "There's really only two places it could be, so I'll check there and get back to you…?" I look at Ryan. "With Ryan's help, that is." He stares back, confusion and anxiety written across his face. "Please, bro. We've risked death enough today," I hiss.

"Sure…?" he says, hesitantly. "Right now?"

I nod rapidly. "Yep. Right now. It'll take ten minutes, tops, and then we'll all be safe and sound and back in the office and ready to not die for the rest of the night."

"There's still something left," Ryan mutters, but Livi talks overtop of him.

"Can you do that?" she says. "Please? Now?" She looks almost close to a breakdown, or maybe I'm just projecting my problems onto her.

I drop my own phone into my pocket. "C'mon, Ry," I say, swallowing to keep my voice steady. "We'll be back soon."

Before anyone can protest or suggest an alternate plan, I grab Ryan's wrist and pull him out the door with me. I can hear Hunter clearing his throat - to make some witty remark, no doubt - but I don't pay attention. I don't need to. What I need to do is get Livi's phone and get back into the office, and listening would just waste time, and that time could mean that the robots in the hallway are approaching us any minute to rip our heads off and gorge themselves on our organs like we do on the pizza sold at this restaurant and-

I realize that I'm digging my bitten fingernails into Ryan's hands. "Oops," I say, immediately letting go.

"It's okay," Ryan says. "It's fine."

Something echoes down the hallway and we both snap our heads up to the sky. "Liv said there's no vents in the arcade," I say as we walk stiffly towards the blue-lit room.

" _Good_ ," Ryan says.

Luckily for us, Jason and Ed are the only thing we run into. Ed aves his hand to get our attention. "Yo, where'd Livi go?" he asks. He grabs a shivering Jason with his other and pulls him back to his side.

"Back to the office," Ryan says.

"Something bad," I add.

"W-Well shit," Jason stutters, and I wonder how much caffeine he's ingested already. "What-t?"

Me and Ryan both shrug. "She wouldn't say," Ryan says.

Ed whistles a low note. "That's not good."

I shake my head. "Nope," I say.

"W-Why are y-you guys out-out here?" Jason asks, tilting his head.

"Retrieving her phone," I say. Maybe I should have lied.

Ed nods. "Good luck," he says. He nudges Jason on, and we pass each other on our ways.

I look over my shoulder. "Liv said that she was waiting for them to leave the bathroom a full ten minutes ago," I whisper. "I wonder what took them so long?"

Metal footsteps crash down the hallway. Ryan grabs my wrist like a steel trap and we both turn towards the sound.

Two glowing eyes stare at us without blinking. With every crash, they get closer, and closer.

This time, neither of us wait. We tear towards the closest door - the arcade entryway - and pray we're faster.


	9. Chapter 9

"You kn-know what game-me is f-fun to play-play?" the dog stutters. 

Its mechanical voice echoes down the hallway. I throw myself to the door of the arcade, trip, and fall flat on my face right behind a bank of machines. For a second, I can't breathe.

" _ T-Tag _ !" it screams. 

I heave myself to my feet, crawl along the machines. Metal footsteps follow me.  _ Go faster! _ I think, but my limbs are almost frozen to the ground. 

"And y-you're it!" the dog says from right behind me. 

I push myself as high as I dare go and dive for the corner of the machine. Ryan's foot is right in front of me. He grabs my hand and yanks me behind the machine. We tumble to the ground on the other side. 

This time, I force my limbs to cooperate. I'm stumbling to my feet and staggering towards a different bank of machines.  _ This place is a maze _ , I think. But I might just be dizzy. 

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" the dog sings. 

Clank, clank, clank. 

I press my back to the back of the machines, peer over my shoulder. I've lost Ryan. Oh, God, I've lost Ryan. 

"It's not-t fair to hid-de like that," it says, from behind the games I'm pressed against.

I bite my lip. I've lost Ryan. But so has the dog. 

"G-games are supposed to be  _ f-f-fun _ , Delila-h," the dog says. It's farther away. "Y-you ruined-d it for everybody-body." Even further. "Remember, kids-" 

And then it shuts up. And then I hear its footsteps clanking down the hallway, back towards the office. Back on its programmed path. 

I wait until I know that it's far out of earshot before I even dare to breathe, to move. My legs shake, my eyes water, my breath catches in my throat, but I can't let myself panic yet. What if it comes back? What if the dinosaur comes instead? What if it's both of them? What if there  _ is _ a vent in here that nobody's noticed yet and Toy Foxy joins the party? What if what if what if what if what if-

I furiously wipe at my eyes. Can't panic yet. Have to keep focused. 

What were we here for again?

I blink. It'll come back to me. It better, at least, or I don't know what I'd do. Until then, I have to find Ryan. 

I step away from the machine, clear my throat, and look around. There's nothing but machines and flickering blue light as far as I can see. My stomach lurches. Nothing. There's nothing. 

"Ryan?" I hiss, as loud as I dare. "Are you- Are you okay?" 

I shove my hand in my pocket and pull out my phone. My hands are shaking. "Ryan? Hello?" It takes a couple of tries to turn on the flashlight. "Are you still… You're okay, right?" 

There's a sound like crushed glass. I jump, wave my light around, search for the source of the noise. I think I see a shadow, but I can't tell what of. I take a step backward just to be safe. 

"Kris?" I hear Ryan whisper from about where the shadow is. "That you?" 

I nod. He can't see me. "Yes?" I call back. My voice is just more than a whisper now. "You're okay?"

"Not at all," Ryan says. "I… I found it." 

"Found what?" I ask dumbly. 

"Liv's phone. Get over here." 

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Right. That's why we were here," I mutter to myself. "Idiot." 

When I look up, I see another phone light not even a machine back away from me. I hurry towards Ryan. He's standing next to an overturned arcade game that's spitting sparks from its screen and what looks like a pile of broken glass. I blink. "What happened…?" 

Ryan shrugs. "Something bad?" he offers. He's pointing at the pile of broken glass. I crouch to take a closer look, then I pick up the corner of Livi's blue phone case with two fingers. 

Pieces of glass drip off what once was an iPhone XS like a shiny glass waterfall. What's left of the screen is flickering at least four different colors. The flashlight flashes like a strobe light. 

I gasp. The destroyed phone slips from my fingers. The flashlight stops for good. 

"That's… Not good?" I say. I can imagine shard of glass embedding themselves in my thigh if I were to  _ dare _ to put that thing in my pocket. "We can't bring it back like that."

Ryan pokes the debris. "Nope. Maybe we shouldn't bring it back at all." 

"But we can't just leave it here," I say. I drop to my knees to avoid losing feeling in my toes. "They'd dock our pay, probably. For leaving a mess or some bullshit like that."

Neither of us talk for a second. We just stare at the little lump of electronics in silence. "So then," Ryan says. "What are we supposed to do?" 

I poke the broken phone again. "I think there's a supply closet by the bathroom," I say. Slowly, I rise. "If I remember right, there's a camera in there."

Ryan stares at me. "Why…?" he asks. 

I shrug. "I don't know. But there's probably a dustpan or something in there. Maybe a plastic bag." I turn my flashlight off to conserve battery and slip my phone in my pocket. "We can carry  _ that _ back to the office and… Show her?" 

He doesn't seem eager to travel much further. "I guess," he says. 

"We'll use the other exit, it's faster from there," I say, and I hope I'm right about the supply closet. If not, I don't know what I'll do. 

Ryan waffles for a moment more, then straightens himself up. "Let's go," he says, rather unenthusiastically. 

We inch our way through the maze of arcade machines as quietly as we can manage, pausing to listen every couple of steps. There's nothing there - and there shouldn't be, I think, if the dog has resumed its preset path. 

We stop right at the doorway close to the bathroom when another thought hits me. "We should straighten the arcade machine too," I say quickly, to Ryan. "We can't fix it, but we can… y'know."

Ryan nods. "Cool,  _ later _ ," he says. 

We stick our heads out of the doorway. The right is silent; in the distance, I see the lights of the office blocked by the waving silhouette of the dog. The left rumbles with activity in the vents. Toy Foxy must finally have recovered; that, or it's been lurking in there since Ed and Jason got back. I hope there's no vents in the hallway. I know that's not true. I switch to thinking about the dinosaur, but that's not much better. So I just stop thinking. 

"Coast is clear," I say.

"Uh-huh," Ryan replies. 

"I-It's party time!" says the dinosaur. 

I freeze, every muscle in my body tensing. There's no sign of the thing: no footsteps, no red lights at the end of the hall, no whirring gears or robot parts. There is nothing but the echoing voice. And that fades away far too soon. 

I latch onto Ryan's wrist. My eyes frantically dart down the hallway, then over my shoulder, but there's nothing. " _ What the fuck _ ," I breathe. 

Ryan says nothing. I feel his pulse racing underneath my fingertips. He takes a step backward; I take a step backward. 

Nothing appears.

"Maybe it's tricking us," I say, and I lean forward and poke my head out into the dark. "Maybe it's in one of the party rooms?"

Ryan lifts his other hand, shines his flashlight down the hall. Nothing appears but the outline of a claw machine. He flashes the light against the wall adjacent to us. "What are you doing?" I ask. 

"Counting doors," he replies. "That's the closet?" He wiggles his hand out of my grip and points at the slightly open door farthest from us, right next to a door with a triangular pink person on it. 

I nod. "It probably is." Now, I stare straight ahead. "There's also a different closet in the show stage." 

" _ No _ ," he says. And that's all he says. 

"You don't have to worry," I reply. 

"There's-There's lot's of f-fun waiting-g for the b-b-birthday boy!" the dinosaur sings. I think it's in one of the dining halls. 

"On three?" I say. 

Ryan gives me a look. "You want to kill us?" 

I shake my head. "Of course not! But if we wait, then it'll come closer…"

He hesitates. "I… I guess…?"

"C-Come s-sing with us-s!" 

The dinosaur sounds just a bit closer. 

" _ Three!"  _ I hiss, and then I take off like a madman towards the closet door. 

Ryan stumbles. "Wait!" he calls. I don't. I slap my hand onto the doorknob of the closet and yank the door wide open. I can't see anything in the dark but the outline of a yellow wheelie bucket. Maybe it'll do? I start to grab it when Ryan skids to a halt next to me. He shines the flashlight inside. 

"Dude," he says. 

"Sorry?" I say. 

In the corner, propped up against the wall, is a dust pan and a plastic handled broom. I snatch it and tuck it under my arm. "Is there anything else you can think of grabbing?" I say, scanning the rest of the closet. 

"I don't think so?" he replies. 

I see a long mop handle and I hand it to him anyway. It's wooden and the mophead drips water on my foot. "You never know," I say. 

"Never know what?" Ryan says. He hold the mop awkwardly away from him. A puddle is forming next to his foot. "It's a robot."

"Anything could be useful?" I offer. I step backwards to shut the closet. 

Ryan doesn't seem convinced. "It's a  _ robot _ ," he says again. 

"It makes  _ me _ feel better," I mutter. "Okay. Okay. Let's go." 

The closet doesn't latch shut when I push it closed. Frustrated, I shove it again. It bounces back with more force this time. 

"C'mon, Kris," Ryan says. He's already almost back in the arcade. 

"I almost got it," I hiss, and I shove the door one more time. 

There's a metal creak and a crash and I  _ think _ that I've gotten the door shut this time, but it pops back open again. I groan in frustration.

Something nexts to me crackles with static. 

I don't want to turn around and see it. I don't want to turn around and see it. I don't want to turn around and see it. 

And I don't have tp.

It leaps and I feel it's head slamming into my side. The impact pushes me over. I slam into the ground, slide back a few inches, try to shove the mangled robot off of me,  _ try to breathe _ , but I can only accomplish one of those things and my vision is going spotty.

Then, the animatronic is pushed aside, and there's Ryan's hand pulling me upright, and I cough and my breathing is back to normal, and I don't  _ think _ I'm bleeding? I stumble forward, lean on Ryan's arm for support. My vision slowly clears up. "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck," I stammer. 

Static. It's almost like Toy Foxy is screaming at us. I lift my head to look at it. It's one yellow eye is rolling around its head like a magic eight ball. I swallow. We have to get rid of it. We have to get back to the office. We have to get safe. 

I let go of Ryan's arm and step to the side. The animatronic slips back on its haunches, readies itself to pounce. Ryan takes a step back, brandishes the mop handle like a sword. His phone light shines facedown on the ground, leaving nothing but the emergency lighting to see by. Water drips onto my shoe.

Next to the hostile robot lies the dustpan and the broom knocked from my grip upon impact. I need to get it. i need to get it and I need to get back to the arcade. I need to get it and I need to get back to the arcade and I need to get Livi's phone. And I need to not die.

Water is now seeping into my shoe. 

"...You can catch, right?" I say to Ryan. I have an idea. A really dumb idea. But it's an idea. 

"Not really," Ryan says. He takes another step back. I match him.

"That's good enough," I say. I grab the mop and yank it out of his hands. 

Toy Foxy snarls in static and leaps at the same time. 

I throw the wet mop in the robot's general direction. At the same time, I dive for the dustpan. I hope I haven't miscalculated. 

When I hit the ground, I grab the dust pan and hug it to my chest like its a football and look over my shoulder. I missed. The plastic mop handle is currently splintering in Toy Foxy's maw. The wet part completely missed anything important. Dammit. 

"Take this!" I call and I slide the dustpan towards Ryan - who is thankfully, physically in tact. 

" _ Look o-"  _ Ryan yells. He is cut off by static and the thump of a body hitting the ground.

When I turn around, I see the dinosaur's red eyes approaching at an ungodly pace. I panic. This was not supposed to happen. My wet shoes slide when I try to rush away from the dinosaur. I fall flat on my face. But I grab the broom. 

The dinosaur stops inches away from me. It looks like its hovering an inch or two off the ground. Wheels? Does it have wheels? I don't know, and I don't get a chance to find out, because there's a hand on the back of my shirt lifting me up off the ground and it's  _ definitely _ not Ryan's. 

"F-Found the birthday-day boy-y!" stutters the dinosaur. I wriggle as I'm lifted off the ground. I can hear gears clicking and whirring in its metal belly, steam hissing as parts move.

Then, a seam opens up in between the two plates of its stomach, and I scream and kick and flail my arms because I'm about to be shoved inside that thing and I don't want to find out what's inside. " _ Help!"  _ I yell over and over until my throat hurts, but the only thing that answers is static and the clatter of metal on linoleum. I can see twisting gears. I can see pistons. I can see a large hollow space behind all of that. Desperate for escape, I plunge the plastic broom in between two of the gears. The broom handle crushes and breaks. I'm getting closer and closer to those gears and that inevitable death and I close my eyes and whisper, "Please, please, please, please," over and over again, although I don't know whether I'm begging for rescue or a swift release and I don't know which is worse and then cold water splashes over my head and the robot's and snaps me back to reality. 

"Take-Take that," Ryan pants.

The dinosaur's gut sparks and smokes. "H-Happy B-Birthday," it spits, and then again: "H-Happy Birthday." And again. Over and over again, until the sound trails off for good. 

Its hand releases and I plummet to the ground. Impact is twice as bad this time. My ribs ache like I've lost a title match in boxing and I want nothing more than to curl up into a ball and sleep and maybe cry. 

Definitely cry. I've almost died for the third time tonight. 

I roll onto my side and accept Ryan's hand to help me up. The robot next to me doesn't move, and the other robot is nowhere in sight. And Ryan looks awfully disheveled. His glasses are askew, and there's two small wounds dribbling blood down the sides of his head. In his other hand is the yellow wheelie bucket, which is now empty. His phone light faces up. 

I stumble onto my feet and brush my damp bangs out of my face. My hands are shaking. I ball them into fists and jam them into my pockets. "Where's Toy Foxy?" I say, as steady as I can manage. 

"Back in the vents," he replies. "I did the flashlight thing."

I nod. "Got it, got it," I say. "And your face…?"

"Got bit…" He yawns. "I need a nap. Or to cry. Or… Something." He scrubs his palms over his face, smears blood everywhere. 

I nod again. "Let's get Livi's phone and get back as fast as we can, just in case…" I trail off and point jerkily at the robot behind me. "L-Let's just go."

We move as fast as our jelly-like limbs will allow us. I pick up the dust pan and broom, Ryan grabs his phone, and we walk stiffly towards the entrance to the arcade. At the doorway, Ryan pauses, and I hear him take a deep breath. 

"...Are you okay?" I ask him, stepping backward to meet him. 

"It almost ripped my fucking  _ face _ off," he says. His breath catches. "I was about to  _ die.  _ And  _ you _ were about to die. And we're all going to die." 

I tuck the broom under my arm and take his hand in mine and hope that my own anxieties aren't tangible through my touch. "Everything will be okay," I tell him, but I'm saying that to myself as much as him. "Nothing that isn't supposed to happen will."

"So that  _ was _ supposed to happen?" he asks. 

I think I may have made a mistake. 

I close my eyes, trying to think, but all I can see is the opening belly of the dinosaur animatronic. I shiver. 

"I don't think I wanna come back," Ryan says. 

I shake my head. "I don't either. But, hey, we just- we just broke one of the main attractions, we're sure to get fired for  _ that _ ." I giggle. "Maybe that's why this was supposed to happen. To get us out of here."

There isn't really any response. I tug on his arm. "Let's just get Liv's phone and get back and then, I think, you should definitely take a nap, and maybe I should too, and we'll just take the rest of the night off."

There's still not much of a response. I think the adrenaline must have worn off. I give his hand a squeeze that I hope comes off as less nervous spasm and more comforting and let go. "C'mon. You can hold it together until we get back to the office, right? Cause if you can't, I can't, and that's most certainly a death sentence."

He pushes off the wall and together, we move back into the depths of the arcade. 


	10. Chapter 10

We wait for the dog to limp its way back the way it came before we approach the office. The door is wide open, spilling light and the sounds of an argument into the hallway. 

I blink at Ryan. "I wonder what's going on," I say. 

He shrugs. "I kinda don't." 

But we don't really have a choice in the matter. I adjust my grip on the phone filled dustpan and approach the office.

"They're d-dead!" Jason is yelling. "Y-You heard that! W-We could have-could have helped them but _no_ , y-you're too much of a pussy!" 

Ryan and I stand awkwardly in the doorway. I wonder if I should intervene, but I'm kind of entertained. After the stress of the last few minutes, the sight of Jason - the same kid who this time yesterday had had two and a half panic attacks and spent most of the night asleep - waving his hands and cursing Hunter out for being the idiot that he is is the most amusing thing in the world. 

"Maybe you've had too much to drink," Ed says. He reaches for the new can in Jason's hand.

"Six Monsters-Monsters is nothing. Anyway-"

Hunter, who has pressed himself against the second computer, coughs. "They're right behind you," he says. 

 _Everyone_ turns around. I wave awkwardly. Jason throws his hands in the air. "Ryan! And Kris! You're alive!" he cheers, and the can slips from his hand and spills on the floor. 

"Did you think we were dead?" I ask, while Jason runs up and gives Ryan an excited hug. Maybe _six_ energy drinks were too many, regardless of what he says. 

"Yeah," Jason says. I sidestep him to avoid his hug and to avoid spilling the remains of Liv's phone all over him. 

Livi nods. She's now standing. "We couldn't _see_ what was going on because _that_ dickwad-" she glares at Hunter pointedly- "wouldn't let us look at the cameras." She sighs. "Of course we assumed the worst." Suddenly, her eyes light up. "You got my phone, right?" And she holds her left hand out expectantly. 

I wince. "...You're not gonna like it," I whisper, shifting my grip on the dustpan. How she hasn't looked in it yet, I don't know. Breathing is making my ribs hurt. 

"I don't care if it's cracked!" she replies. "Kinda expecting that anyway. That's fine! Please?" 

"Why are you wet?" Ed asks. "And what's with the dustpan?"

I shoot a glance at Ryan. He is still being hounded by Jason. I turn back to Livi and fumble with my other hand for a piece of paper I can pour this on. "It's kinda a funny story…" I say, snatching up an electric bill. 

And then I empty the dustpan onto the paper. 

And then the light empties from Livi's eyes. She picks up the corner of the phone carcass, which stopped flickering long ago, with two fingers, then drops it on the little pile of broken glass. "W-What?" she asks, staring at me.

I nearly drop the dustpan. "Don't look at me like that! It was like this when we… Found… It."

Livi sits down on the chair and stares at the pile, silent. Eventually, she gestures at the pile, looks up at me, looks back down again, looks up one more time, and says, "...How?" She stabs her hand at the debris. "Literally. _How_ did this happen?"  

I have my hands held up in front of my like a shield as if she's accusing me of busting it. "It got run over?" I offer, with a resigned shrug. "I think the dinosaur has wheels, so…?"

"It has _wheels_?" Livi says. 

I nod slowly. "I saw them-"

" _What the fuck_?" she whispers. 

I heave a resigned sigh. I don't really know what I'm supposed to say. "I have no fucking clue," I say. "I don't know about _any_ of this anymore." 

Liv drops her gaze. "I'm dreaming," she says. "That's it. This is a nightmare." She starts to push the remnants of her phone towards the trash bin. "I'm gonna wake up soon and everything's going to be fine and _don't,_  Kris." She holds up her hand to silence me from saying something I actually wasn't going to, this time around. I flinch backward. "Let me have this, whatever _this_ is."

I realize at this moment how quiet the room has become. No one's talking; in fact, no one's been talking since I mentioned the whole wheel thing. I flinch backward away from the desk, almost hugging the dustpan to my chest. "Sorry, dude," I hear Jason say. "Th-that's gotta _suck_."

"Are you _grieving_ ?" Hunter sputters, finally peeling himself away from the desk he was sheltering himself against. "For your _phone_?"

Livi shoots him a glare. "Don't fucking start," she says. 

"Technically, this is his fault," I mutter. I suddenly feel very cold. Maybe it's the wet shirt plastered to my chest. 

Hunter jumps to defend himself. "How the hell is this my fault? _She_ dropped her phone!" 

At the same time, Livi says, "No, wait," and points at me. "How _is_ it his fault?" 

Now everyone is quiet for a different reason. I turn around, scanning everyone's expressions. "If the buddy system were in place, then maybe this wouldn't have happened," I begin slowly. I think I have a point, but I don't know if I can properly get it out yet. 

"There were two people with her," Hunter says. He waves his hand at Ed and Jason. 

"Actually we were in the bathroom," Ed says. "Cause of Jase."

Jason laughs nervously. "S-s-six Monsters," he stammers.

"I was alone," Livi says. 

Hunter shakes his head rapidly. "So? How would the buddy system have fixed this? Technically she already had two-"

I point at myself, then at Ryan. "If either of us had been with her, we could have warned her before things got… Near-fatal, I suppose. Or even saved her _and_ her phone. Gotten her out of there sooner." I set the dustpan down on the desk. "Cause Ryan warned me and then… I mean, I was still almost eaten but he saved my ass." 

"You're a hero," Jason says in awe. Ryan looks at the ground and scratches the back of his neck.

"You were almost _eaten?_ " Hunter says. "By a robot? That's hard to believe." 

I close my eyes. The robot's empty stomach looms across my eyelids. "It's hard to explain," I say. 

"Not really," Livi mumbles. I open my eyes and stare at her. "Its stomach, right? It just pops open…" She pantomimes the motion, but then she drops her right hand to the desk, hissing on impact. "Fuck." 

I wince. "Your hand…" I say, thoughtfully. 

Hunter taps his fingers on the cabinet to draw attention back to him. "She got out just fine," he says. "I mean she was a _little_ beat up-"

"I mean, I can't move my wrist but it's  _fine_ ," Livi says. She glares at him. 

"...You have two hands?"  Hunter offers. 

"The  _point_ ," I say, before they escalate any further, "is that if someone had been there, it wouldn't have _happened_. The worst of it could have been prevented. But you didn't fucking think about that, did you?" 

Hunter shakes his head. "How was I supposed to? We'd no idea-"

"But we _knew_ that one of them moved. Why shouldn't both?" I take too deep of a breath and wince. "If you'd let us- If you'd even _thought_ -" All of this talking and yelling and moving is doing nothing for the dull ache in my chest, which has sharpened with every breath I continue to take. "Fuck." I sit down on the desk. "The point is, you took charge, again, and refused to let go, and now three people have almost died, _twice_."

"Not to mention yesterday," Livi says. 

I nod. "Yes-" I cough a couple of times; my ribs don't like _that_ . "Fucking hell, dude, everybody's had _something_ happen to them, except you." 

"He's scared," Ed says. 

Hunter looks offended. He grips the monitor so tightly his knuckles turn white. "So are _you_ ," he mutters. "Look at Jason-"

"B-Bitch?" Jason says, hopping from foot to foot. "I-I-I think I'm g-good!"

"Thanks to caffeine," Hunter says. 

"At least he _tried_ ," Livi says. "You've just fucking sat there this entire time!" She sighs, digging her fingers into the desk and stabbing her other hand at Hunter. "Doing _nothing_ except flipping through cameras and giving out orders that conveniently won't fucking let you leave the office…" She trails off, curls her hand into a fist. 

Ed takes a step forward. "Look, bro," he says. "It's cool that you're scared. Cause we all are." He waves ones of his hands around the room. 

"Not scared," Hunter mutters. 

I slip off the desk and back towards Ryan. Ryan is staring at the floor. I reach for his bloody hand and hope that will calm him down. 

No one has responded to Hunter, so he seems to take that as an opportunity to keep going. "I'm not fucking scared!" he snaps. "I just- I just don't want to die!" 

"So you're afraid of death then?" Livi replies. She takes a controlled breath. "Just admit it. It's not gonna kill you." 

"No," Hunter says. He points at the door. "But _they_ might." 

We all turn around, but there's nothing there. The hallway gapes before us. Despite how clear it is, I find myself unsettled enough to inch forward and shut the door. 

No one speaks.

"Everyone else," Livi says eventually. I turn my attention back to her, but her eyes are fixed on Hunter. Hunter, I notice, is staring at the ceiling. "Literally everyone else reached that conclusion _yesterday_. But you were convinced that we were all lying until like, ten minutes ago." 

Hunter shakes his head. "I believed you," he mumbles. 

"Really? You did?" Livi raises her eyebrows. "You sure? Cause that's not what it sounded like!" 

Hunter shifts back and forth. "I didn't _want_ to believe you, but I did."

"You don't get to say that after _this_ ." Livi gestures at herself, Ryan, and me. "Maybe an hour ago. But not _now_." 

I tug at my shirt. The tension in this room is so thick it's suffocating. Or maybe that's just the clinginess of a damp shirt. I find myself staring at the floor. I wanna get out of there, but I don't want to go back out _there_ , and I'm not the problem. 

Hunter is saying something, some attempt at a defense I bet, but I don't pay attention. I've suddenly had an idea. I let go of Ryan's hand and try to get Ed's attention. "Isn't there something left to do?" I ask him. 

It takes a second for him to respond. He squints as if he's trying to remember. "I think so. Something about the bathroom."

"What does that have to do with _this_?" Hunter asks. His face is red like he's holding back. He looks like an incensed tomato. I wince. 

"If you're so _not scared_ ," I say, "then why don't you go out and do something?"

Hunter crosses his arms. "I said I would - if it had to do with the _kitchen_." He now resembles more an angry toddler than a tomato. "And there's nothing that does."

"But you're not scared," I retort. "Then there'd be no problem."

" _Yes_ ," Livi says. "Please. Leave." She curls her hands into fists. 

Hunter shakes his head. "No. I made my promise, I'll stick to it." 

"You won't even have to go alone," Ed jumps in. "Me and Jase'll go with you." He points to Jason, who's been bouncing on his toes for the past two and a half minutes. 

Jason's face twists into a grimace. "H-He didn't let-let us," he says, just quiet enough that Hunter can't hear, and I want to agree, but Ed waves him off. 

"If it'll get him out of the office," Ed hisses. He has a point. I nod. 

Hunter frowns, just a little bit, but his face has softened. "I won't be alone," he echoes. 

Ed nods. "Yep. We'll just clean the bathroom or whatever we have to do in there, come back. How's that?" 

I hold my breath, waiting for Hunter's response. 

He takes an agonizingly slow pause before nodding. "I think I'll do that. Tonight." He drops his arms to his sides and slips past the desk. "We can rediscuss this tomorrow." 

"I don't think we will?" Livi says, tilting her head. Her voice shakes a little. I hiss quietly.  Hunter pointedly ignores her.

Ryan drops my hand and turns towards the cloudy window. "I think it's clear," he says quietly. "You could go now."

"Let's do it," Ed says. He slams the button to open the door, and sure enough, the hallway lacks any animatronics still. 

Ryan mumbles that he's going to watch the cameras, Jason loudly states that he has to pee, I reassure them that everyone's going to be fine, everything's going to be okay. And then Ed and Jase leave once again, blissfully taking Hunter with them. 

I start to walk towards the far cabinet, where I think I remember the extra uniforms being. I have to get out of this shirt at least. Livi takes a huge breath when I pass the desk. When I look at her, she's staring at the tabletop, right where the pile of her poor phone still lie. She furiously wipes at her eye. A few flakes of dried blood drift to the table. 

I open my mouth to ask if she's okay. She speaks before I can get the words out.

"I am so fucking _tired_ ," she whispers.


	11. Chapter 11

By sheer luck alone, I manage to find a new shirt and a rusty metal box that looks like it is either a toolkit or a first aid kit. It is sealed shut thanks to the rust and I doubt I'll be able to open it without the aid of a tool. Maybe there's something in the kitchen, but I don't really want to go look. 

I wriggle out of the wet shirt and into the new one to the best of my ability, then ball up my damp polo and tuck it in the corner. There's no place to put a used shirt, so I figure someone on the next shift will move it to where it should go. At least, I can hope. I don't know for certain. 

"Three hours to go," I mumble, smoothing out my new shirt. "And then we're free."

Livi scoffs. "We have to be back by tomorrow," she says. She crosses her arms. She's no longer crying, which would be great, except now she's just ticked off. "Unless we quit." She leans back in the chair and sulks. 

"Please don't quit," I interrupt. "C'mon, we have to stick together. Then we can keep Hunter in his place. Y'know." I fidget with my hands. "Please, dude."

"Actually," Ryan says, quietly, "we-" he points between me and him- "might get fired." He clears his throat, and we turn to look at him. "Cause I, uh, broke the robot." 

Livi's eyes widen. "You  _ broke _ the robot?" she says, leaning forward. "How the hell did you do that, Ryan? It's…" She trails off, slumps back into the seat. "It seemed pretty indestructible before." She waves her hand in a tight, controlled gesture and swallows. 

Ryan shrugs and stares at the ground. "Threw a bucket of water on it. It was going to eat Kris, so I just kinda panicked and…" He vaguely pantomimes tossing something. "I mean, it worked, xie's still alive." 

Livi nods. "And it just. Shut down. Wow. Okay." She rubs her arms like she's cold. "Yeah, you're gonna get fired. On your second night."

"I really hope so," Ryan says. He sounds almost pleading. "I'm sick of this place already." 

"Would we both get fired, or just you?" I ask. "Because you're the one that broke it, I was just… You know." I flick my gaze to the ceiling and try to move on. Thinking of that gaping hole in the robot's chest is making me want to cry. "About to die."

"It's against the rules to touch the robots, right?" Livi says. "So you'd both be fired. If they're going to fire you." She sighs, and I turn back to her. "If you get fired, I'm fucking quitting. I'm not dealing with those three on my own." She says this with determination. I can't tell if she means the trio of homicidal robots or our idiotic coworkers. Maybe she means both. 

Ryan nods. "I kinda just want to walk out now," he mumbles. 

"The door's probably locked," I say. I turn around and look at the cameras, which are flickering static. For the first time, I get the chance to flip through all of them. I do so, hopping from one camera to the next. I can't tell where the boys are, but that's because there aren't any cameras in the bathroom. The dinosaur remains in the hallway, sparking and sputtering - or maybe it's just frozen, it's hard to tell with this quality. The dog is poking its metal head out of the show stage. The show stage is black, as usual. 

"Isn't that illegal?" Livi says. 

"There's so much about this company that's illegal," I say. I notice another camera, off of the show stage area, that no one's paid much attention to.  **[Backstage Closet]** it reads, and I click on it out of curiosity. 

"That's very true," Livi replies. She takes another deep sigh. Then, softer, she says, "Fucking hell. How do I explain any of this to my parents?" 

The backstage closet camera makes me uncomfortable. Animatronic parts line the shelves: blank, staring heads; endoskeleton pieces; limbs and voiceboxes and half-lidded eyes. I see light leaking from under what might be another door, but there's no camera to it, and I can't stay focused on it without my gaze drifting back to the lifeless robots scattered throughout the room. I flick away from the screen and back to the blank show stage. 

"I don't bother to try," Ryan is saying when I turn back around. "They're not gonna believe me, no matter what happens."

Livi shrugs. "I know my parents would believe me," she says. "I just don't know how to explain." 

"I don't even see my parents enough to tell them what's up," I say, leaning on the monitor. "Maybe ten minutes? But that's not enough time before I have to leave. And didn't that Daniel guy say he was gonna be gone for the week? He wasn't the one sending the emails and he wasn't the one we had to contact to get the job, I don't think. But he's the guy we have to talk to about quitting."

"What if we just didn't show up?" Livi says matter-of-factly. 

"I like that idea," Ryan says. 

I hold up my hands. "If we formally quit, we'll get  _ some _ cash."

"Yeah, but is it worth it?" Ryan asks. "We keep almost dying." He sighs. "I don't actually wanna die."

"I'm gonna sleep on this," I say. "I'll let you know what I'm gonna do tomorrow."

"How?" Livi says. She lifts a finger and sort of points at the trash can. "I don't have a phone." 

"We'll figure something out."

The conversation lapses into a tangibly awkward silence. I turn away, pull my phone out of my pocket. Absently I check the time. It is 3:04 AM. I sigh. I want to go  _ home _ . 

"So," Livi says after an uncomfortably long pause. I look up at her, but before she can finish her statement, she's cut off by something clattering to the ground in the hallway and someone - Hunter - screaming. 

She, Ryan, and I all turn towards the door, but all we can see is a tangled mess of a shadow. 

Toy Foxy has reappeared. 

"What  _ are _ you?" Hunter yells. 

Ryan pushes the button to shut the office door. Livi rises and approaches the monitor. The three of us end up crowding around it. 

It's hard to tell on this glitchy screen, but it looks like Toy Foxy is preparing to pounce on Hunter, who's curled in on himself in the shadowy corner. His hand covers his face. The screen cuts to static and back again. He's sunk lower; Toy Foxy has come closer. 

Blip of static. He's rolled himself into a ball. Toy Foxy stretches its mechanical jaw wide.

"Oh, my God," I breathe, covering my mouth with my hand. "Oh my God, he's going to die."

Static. 

"Oh no," Livi says. "This is… Oh, fuck." She stares at the screen with wide eyes. 

My head is starting to spin. I feel Ryan's hand on my shoulder. "What the hell," he whispers, and I nod in agreement. 

There's another loud clatter that's muffled by the shut door, and the camera cuts back to normal. Hunter is sitting on the ground, staring at his hands. The door to the bathroom has been flung wide open, and Jason is standing in the doorway. He bounces up and down on his toes. Toy Foxy is nowhere to be seen. 

Static. Ed appears next to Jason. 

Static. Ed grabs Hunter's hand and heaves him upright. 

Static. Jason points down the hallway. They bolt towards the arcade entrance. 

Static. They are gone. 

For a moment, we watch the gray nothingness, and then Livi quietly reaches forward and switches cameras to the arcade. It takes a second for the camera to load, but the trio seems alive and relatively unhurt. A tangled shadow hangs from the doorway. Hunter shakes his head, stares at his hands. 

The camera cuts to static again. Ryan's phone buzzes. I jump sideways and bump into Livi. She curls her hand into her chest. 

"Sorry," I hiss. 

"It's Ed," Ryan says. "Telling us to open the door." 

"What happened?" Livi asks, as I slip away and head towards the door. 

Ryan makes a noise like he doesn't know. "He didn't say anything." He sets his phone down, and I see his hand trembling. "Just said open the door. Now." 

"Then what are you waiting for?" I say. 'They're gonna die!" 

Livi's closest to the door. She hits the button before I finish talking. One by one, the three boys tumble into the room: Jason trips and falls to the ground, Hunter stumbles and covers his face with his hands, Ed slams the door button and slides down the wall. 

"What hap-" Livi asks. 

She's cut off by something very heavy smacking into the top of the door and an enraged sounding screech. I jump and grab onto Ryan's hand. 

"Oh, my god," I say. "Oh my god. Oh my god." 

Ed nods. He appears to be the only one capable of coherent thought. "That. That happened." He hikes his shoulders around his ears and takes a deep, shaky breath. "Whatever the fuck that was just…"

Jason pops his head up from the floor. "It tried-d to eat H-Hunter!" he stammers. "And then-then it-t-t tried to eat us!" Slowly, he pushes himself to a sitting position. "And we almost f-fucking died!" His eyes are wide. His voice shakes. "I d-don't want to die. I p-promise." 

I look at Ryan, who is avoiding eye contact with me, then at Liv. She stares back at me, then she, too, drops her gaze. Her hands are clenched into fists. 

_ That must hurt, _ I find myself thinking,  _ what with her acrylics.  _ And then I giggle, ridiculously. That's a dumb thought. But it's sure better than anything about the robots. Especially one of them. I find my gaze drifting to the vent at the top of the office, and my laughter fades as suddenly as it came on. 

"What the hell are you laughing at?" Hunter snaps. He scrubs his hands over his pale face. "Nothing is fucking funny." 

Scowling, I drop Ryan's hands and stab a finger at Hunter accusatorily. "I am  _ stressed,  _ I am  _ tired _ , I am going to do what the fuck I want to," I say, shoving my other hand in the pocket of my slacks. "Would you rather I cried?" 

"I th-think I'm going to," Jason whimpers. "I-I'm don-ne."

Ryan steps aside to go comfort him. I step back and lean on the monitor. Hunter takes a seat behind the desk. 

All six of us remain silent for far, far too long. 

Livi breaks the silence. "Okay. Okay," she says, and she glances around the room. "What  _ actually  _ happened?" 

"Am I allowed to not want to talk about it?" Hunter says. "I almost died."

"Welcome to the club," I mutter. Livi shoots me a quick glare as if to tell me to calm down. I look at my fingers tapping on the table instead. 

"If you don't wanna, Hunter," Ed says, "I'll talk." He straightens himself up against the doorjamb.

Livi nods and waves her hand for him to continue. He shrugs, then, picking at the ground, says, "We were almost done the cleaning." He gestures at the ceiling. "And then we heard this noise, something like a clatter, from just outside, and Hunter said  _ he'd _ look-"

"No?" Hunter interjects. "You guys made me do it."

"Oh, f-fuck off," Jason mutters. "Y-You volunteered-"

" _ Anyway _ ," Ed says. "He went out of the bathroom to check it out, and the next thing I know there was this crash and then he was screaming. So Jason goes and throws the door open, which knocks the robot back some, and then… We came back here." He deflates. A look of pure exhaustion crosses his thin face. "And we were followed. But we didn't die. Or get hurt."

"Lucky," I mumble. I absently check the time on my phone. It's a quarter to four in the morning. Two hours to go. And then we can go home. 

Jason's the one laughing now. "Y-yeah, really," he says. 

"What are we going to do?" Ryan asks. "Now that we've  _ all _ … Almost... You know." He trails off and drops his gaze to the ground. 

Livi shrugs. 

"I don't think we can answer that yet," I say, putting my phone down. "We still have… There's still a variable we don't know." I shove my phone in my pocket. 

Ryan traces a circle on the ground. "What-t is it?" Jason asks, tilting his head. 

"Me and Ryan could get fired."

Jason gapes. "F-For what?" he says, his eyes wide.

"I broke the robot," Ryan whispers. "Trying to save xim." 

Jason lifts his eyebrows even higher. " _ You _ broke the robot?" he says. "The-the one in the hallway? The d-dinosaur?" 

Ryan nods slowly. 

I glance around the room. Hunter has a terrified look on his face, and I realize that he doesn't know  _ how _ Ryan broke the robot. I wonder if I should say something about the bucket. I decide to let Hunter continue to imagine Ryan's superhuman strength. 

The room has dropped into silence again. I don't like it. I don't think anyone likes it. But I don't think anyone wants to talk, either. I think we all just want to go home. 

No one is making eye contact with anyone else, I notice. I shift uncomfortably. "Did you guys finish the bathroom?" I ask Ed. 

He shrugs. "I don't remember."

"Doesn't matter," Livi says. She perches on the desk, her arms crossed over her chest. "No one's going back out there tonight." She has her eyes closed, but she opens them just to look at me. "We're not risking it."

"I wasn't saying we  _ were _ ," I retort. "I just wanted to  _ know _ ." I bite the inside of my cheek to try and steady myself, but all it does is hurt. 

Livi doesn't respond, just makes a  _ hm _ noise and looks away again. 

"What t-time is it?" Jason asks. 

"Not six," Livi mutters. 

"Four," I say. 

Everyone collectively groans. "It c-could at least be f-five," Jason mumbles. "I just w-wanna go home." He rests his head on Ryan's shoulder. 

"Me too," Ed says. 

And that's the last words anyone says for a long, long time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things get INTERESTING interesting now :)
> 
> i promise
> 
> soon


	12. Chapter 12

Six comes in no big hurry.

By the time the grandfather clock chime rings through the building, we are all sick and tired of the sight of each other's faces and we all have decided in no uncertain terms that we would like to go  _ home _ . 

"I'm so ready to sleep for a million years," I mutter to myself, stretching like a cat. 

"You'll have to be back here tomorrow," Hunter says. 

I try my best to ignore him. I'd rather not think about coming back here again. I've risked death far too many times in one night to want to come back here again. 

Something tells me that's not quite what's going to happen. I shove that thought aside

and take a deep breath. Focus on getting home. And petting my dog. And curling up under seven blankets - mid-July heat be damned. And sleeping peacefully. I shut my eyes. 

The image of the dinosaur's gaping stomach flashes in front of me. My eyelids shoot open again. 

"Is this job really worth the money?" I hear Jason say to himself as he trudges out of the office without saying goodbye to anyone.

I look out the door and see Ed give a tired shrug. 

Someone taps my shoulder. I jump. "You good?" Ryan asks me. 

I nod. "Yeah. Are you?" I'm lying, just a little bit. But Ryan doesn't need to know that. 

Ryan gets this look on his face, like he's debating whether to tell the truth. "We'll find out," he says finally, and he drops his hand. 

I nod and slip my phone into my pocket. "How bout you, Liv?" I ask. 

Livi looks up from the door. "Never been better!" she says, which I sincerely hope is sarcasm. She drums her fingers on the doorway. "I just have to figure out how to explain all of this to my parents."

"They don't seem like the kind of people to get mad over this," I say.

She shakes her head. "They aren't. But this whole…" She trails off, waves her hand vaguely. " _...Mess _ , is…" 

"I get it," I say.  "It's nearly impossible to try."

"Feels like we're in some fucking video game," she says. 

I don't respond to that. 

"We should get out of here," Ryan says, checking his phone. He starts for the door, too. "You coming, Kris?" 

I realize that I'm staring beyond them, at the hallway. A long shadow is being cast on the far wall from where the dinosaur still stands, unmoving. I shake my head to snap out of it. "Yeah," I mumble, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "Yeah." 

Liv waves her hand to motion for me to approach, and I do, nervous energy coursing through my body and my steps. We three leave the office together, abandoning Hunter. I don't think the other two notice, and I don't really care. Nothing could happen after the shift ends.

We get outside, and Ryan calls him and Livi an Uber, and I kick a piece of concrete across the crumbling pavement. It's hot and humid already, despite how early in the morning it is, but I feel cold. And tired. And hungry. 

_ At least the night's over _ , I think.  _ There can't be any way this could get worse, right?  _

I kick another piece of concrete. It skitters across the pavement and into a pothole a few feet away. 

_ Right?  _

 

**Livi, Ryan**

**10:18 AM**

 

[ i cant sleep ]

[ i keep trying too and then i just wake up ]

Ryan

[ me either ]

[ i can never sleep tho ]

 

[ lol ] 

[ fuck ]

[ ryan im so scared what if we dont get fired ]

 

Ryan

[ dont even ]

[ dude i dont wanna think about that ]

 

[ me eiETHER but my dumb anxiety brain ]

[ fufks ]

[ sorry i didnt mean to waeo you ]

 

Ryan

[ its okay ]

[ u didnt ]

[ why did u text the groupchat ]

 

[ i dont know ]

[ i think i ]

[ i dunno ]

[ im gonna go take some nyquil ]

[ maybe then ill sleep ]

  
  


Ryan

[ thats a good idea ]

 

[ good night ]

[ or ]

[ morning ]

[ or whatever ]

[ see you hopefully not soon ]

 

I finally get out of bed after hours of restless, off-and-on dozing. My phone says it's eight-thirty, but I know I haven't slept that much. I feel too uneasy for that. But when I look out the window,  there is no sun, and the light from the room outside my bedroom is on. It's getting later.

It takes a while for my brain to come back online, but when it does, I remember that I'm supposedly getting fired and I open my phone and start tapping every possible app to try and find a text or a voicemail or an e-mail from someone, anyone, telling me that I've been fired and I don't have to come in tonight. 

To my dismay, shock, and annoyance, the only message is an e-mail from the Fazbear Corporate Staff reminding workers that unionizing was specifically against our contract and any suspected union activity will result in a termination of our contracts and a position on a blacklist for any and all Fazbear Entertainment franchises as to prevent future employment there and there is nothing, nothing at all, said about  _ breaking robots _ or literally anything else about getting fired. 

I flop back onto my bed. I want to cry. I really don't want to come to work today. There's a sinking feeling of dread in my stomach that's telling me something particularly bad is about to happen, and I don't want my premonitions to come true - although they could simply be horrible, horrible anxiety. And if that's the case, then I've nothing to worry about. 

Except for giant robots trying to vore me and my friends and also Hunter. And the loss of my life, if the robots kill you upon being swallowed. And the further loss of sleep. 

My phone buzzes in my hand. I mumble something incoherent and find a text from Ryan.  _ [ are you coming to work? ]  _ he's asking. 

I pause for a moment before answering. I'm sure, if I went downstairs and I told my mother what happened last night, that I'd not have to because my mom would make me quit. But I don't really have the words to describe that yet. Plus, if I didn't get fired, then he probably didn't get fired, and I don't want to leave him behind. Or Livi, for that matter. Or anyone. 

_ [ are you? ]  _ I reply instead. 

 

**Ryan**

**8:33 PM**

[ yeah. ]

[ i didnt get fired. ]

[ fuck ]

[ i was hoping you would be ]

[ were you? ]

[ of course not lmao ]

[ there must be a three-strike system or smth ]

[ fuck ] 

[ that would make sense ]

[ are they even open today? with a broken robot- ]

[ maybe theyll tell the kids something like ]

[ "oh she went to visit her friends freddy and bonnie" or "she's sick today" ]

[ huh. ]

[ probably ] 

[ or maybe its been fixed already ]

[ also! a possibility! ]

[ hhhhhh ]

[ when are you going to show up tonight? ]

[ tbh i was thinking of heading over towards you guys soon ]

[ i wanna check on you guys irl ]

[ well mostly livi cause. we. can't talk to her rn ]

[ thats a good idea ]

[ ig ill join you there and we can just uber over together ]

[ ye! ]

[ just like the first day ]

[ just like the first day. ]

[ was that really just monday? ]

[ i think? ]

[ idk anymore ]

[ i gotta go ]

[ cya later kris ]

[ bye ]

 

It takes me an hour to crawl out of bed and prepare myself for tonight. Uniform, phone, charging cord, a form of legal government identification in case of death. 

At the last minute, I grab a little bag and stuff it with a little baggie of ibuprofen, some Band-Aids, and a gauze pad or two or however many I grabbed. It's not much, but it's better than nothing. Maybe we'll actually be able to bust open the first-aid kit tonight. Hopefully, we won't have to. 

A wave of dizziness and paranoia washes over me like I'm a rock on the bottom of the ocean. We'll definitely need it tonight. We always do. 

Maybe I should just stop thinking. 

I call an Uber and, after double-checking everything I'm bringing, head downstairs and out. 

I get to Livi's house at just before ten. When she opens the door, I see that she's holding a large iced coffee in one hand and nothing in the other, which is visibly shaking. 

"What are you doing here?" she asks, gesturing with the iced coffee hand at me. 

I blink. "I came to check on you," I say. "Cause of… earlier this morning?" I poke my head in the doorway. "Can I come in?" 

It looks like it takes a second for the sound to process. "Oh, yeah. Yeah." She steps aside for me to come in. I enter the house and plop rather ungracefully in the comfiest chair in the living room. 

On the coffee table is yet another - empty - plastic cup that probably once held an iced coffee. I stare at the ceiling. "Liv?" I ask. 

"Hm?" she says. She's shut the front door and vanished into the other room off of the entryway. Her head pops out of the doorway. She takes a sip of her coffee. 

"How much coffee have you drunk?" I ask, laying my wrist on my forehead. 

There's a pause while she considers, and then she shrugs and says, "I don't know. A lot?" And then she slips back into the other room.

We're off to a wonderful start, I see. "How much sleep did you get last night?" I call. 

"Not enough!" She sounds remarkably cheerful. I get the feeling that the empty cup on the coffee table isn't the only empty cup in this house right now. 

I nod, despite her not being able to see me - actually, she might be, I don't know what superpowers caffeine gives you. "Same hat," I mumble. "Are you okay?" 

"Not at all," she chirps. 

I don't doubt that one bit. 

The shuffling around in the other room stops, and Livi pops her head back out. "Is Ryan coming, too?" she asks. Sips her coffee. I'm beginning to sense a trend. 

I nod again. "Eventually," I say, dropping my hand to my side.

"Would you like to, like, watch something while we wait?" she offers. 

That sounds like the perfect distraction. I push myself out of one overly comfortable chair and into another in the other room. Liv reclines across an overstuffed couch. "Any preference?" she says, flicking through the different options on Netflix. 

I shrug and bury myself into a blanket that had been strewn across the top of the chair. "Something funny," I mumble, barely looking at the TV screen. "Doesn't matter if I've seen it before."

"Cool. John Mulaney." She selects one of the specials and takes a  _ very _ loud sip of her coffee. I settle down in the blanket like a cat and watch the same opening I've seen at least four times without really processing any of it. The sound is turned down very, very low for some inexplicable reason, but I don't think Livi notices. Nor do I really care.

We sit in near silence for a long, long time, broken here and there by the audience's laughter or another attempt at a sip from an empty cup of coffee. Finally, Livi gives up and places her cup on the table. It slides and rolls off the table. 

She makes no move to pick it up. Neither do I. 

The on-screen audience laughs. 

"I think they're hiding something," she says suddenly, without moving. 

I lift my head from the blanket. "Huh?" I say. 

"The company." She tilts her head back to look at me. "Fazbear Entertainment."

"Oh, yeah, definitely-" I begin. 

"There's a whole second company," she continues. "Circus themed. It had, like, a bunch of different animatronics, but it was never opened longer than one day because the creator's other kid vanished at the party and was never found." She sits up. "They think the robot killed her. Cause the robots only after became rentals, right. And at the rental facility - under the creator's house - two technicians killed themselves, supposedly. Hung." She laughs awkwardly. "I don't know  _ how _ true this is."

"How did you learn all this?" I ask, squinting at her. 

Livi shrugs. "I looked it up on my school laptop. Too many of the websites were blocked, but I found all this." A look of anxiety crosses her face. "If the two technicians got hung, what's going to happen to us?" She stares right at me. "Two fucking adults? We're literal children!" 

I cannot fathom the fact that I am the relatively stable one right now. I lean forward and grab her hand - maybe it'll help ground her or maybe it'll help ground me. "If they got hung, they probably killed themselves," I say. 

Livi pulls her hand away from me. "Okay, but  _ why _ ?" she says. She sounds like she thinks she's being reasonable. "Were they both depressed? Did they  _ see _ something? Or were they killed?" 

"Serious question. Why would a  _ robot _ hang someone?" I curl around so I'm leaning on the armrest of the plush chair. "How many years ago was this? Like, thirty?" 

Livi shakes her head, her eyes closing. "Forget it," she mutters, leaning back into the sofa. 

I stare at her for a moment, totally unable to form a response. The only sound for a while is John Mulaney's high-pitched rambling about a horse in a hospital, marked here and there by the audience's peals of laughter. I watch that for a little bit and think,  _ It's like there's a robot loose in a restaurant. _ I don't say that out loud. 

Instead, I say, "Sorry. That was a lot harsher than I intended," without really looking at her. "You can keep rambling if you'd like." 

Livi sighs. "There's something going  _ on _ and thinking about it is making me sick."

"That could also be the six iced coffees you had." Six might be a conservative estimate. 

"I've had four!" she retorts, which doesn't reassure me. 

I lean my head in my hand and glance at her out of the corner of my eye. "Caffeine addiction aside," I say, tapping my other hand on the plush surface. "You're definitely not wrong. But we've kinda had this conversation before. About the newspaper articles." 

"Oh! Right!" She straightens up like  _ that _ , smacking her hand against the pillows. "Fucking- The newspaper articles. You said there were some kids who got awarded. Or something like that. Right?" 

I nod, a little more than afraid at her intensity. "Yeah? Something like that. And then 'do better next time-'"

"They  _ disappeared _ ," she says. She freezes. "Like, completely gone. The last place they were seen was their fucking job." She laughs totally out of reflex. "They vanished  _ at work _ . Just after they got that award. The same  _ day _ ." 

I don't have a good response to that. "Holy shit," I say after a long pause. "Holy shit."

"That just can't be a coincidence," she says, slowly sinking back into her seat. "That's just. It can't be. Right?" 

"I don't really know, dude," I say. "I don't want to think it would be." I rub my temples. "Cause if it isn't, does that mean we're next…?"

We trail off into a weighted silence. The only noise comes after raucous cheers and laughter from the TV. "Why the  _ fuck _ did you say that?" Livi asks. 

I shrug. And cringe. And then I say, "Well, we might  _ not _ be. I mean, we've only worked there for three days tonight, so we probably have at least two weeks to go before they zero in on us as targets?" 

"I'm quitting." Livi reaches on the table for something she doesn't have. "I'm going to call and I'm going to quit and- And I don't have a phone." She falls back onto the couch. "Fuck."

"I think it's too late to quit tonight," I say, checking the time on my phone. "We only have an hour before we have to be there." I bite the inside of my cheek and stare at her. I don't tell her that I  _ don't _ want her to leave because then it would just be me and Ryan against the other three and that's an unbearable, possibly deadly combination. 

Livi sighs.

The room lapses into almost silence. "When  _ are _ you getting a new phone?" I ask, desperate to avoid anything awkward. 

"I don't know." She brushes some hair out of her face. "Dad said he was going to get one for me tonight, and then something happened and he forgot, so now… here we are." She pops upright, then off the couch. "Tomorrow at the latest. I'm getting a diet Coke. I need more fucking caffeine." Sort of hopping over the recliner, she makes her away towards the exit. "Want some?" she asks, before vanishing out the door. 

"I'm good," I call. I hug the blanket I'm buried in tight around my chest. "Don't wanna have a breakdown mid-shift." 

I don't think she hears that part. What she  _ does _ hear is a knock on the door. Livi makes a kind of squeak and hurries back to the door. "Oh! Hello," she says. "Hi."

"Hi," Ryan says, sliding through the door. "How're you doing?"

"I've had…. A lot of coffee," Livi says with an almost inane sort of giggle. "And a bit of a mental breakdown. Want some Coke?"

"Drugs sound fucking  _ great _ right now," Ryan replies. He shuts the door behind him. 

"If only," Livi says. "Soda's okay?" 

He nods. " _ You're _ okay?" he asks. He then seems to notice my existence and waves. 

I lift a corner of the blanket and wave back. Livi has vanished from sight. "I'll be fine," she says, which sounds like it's supposed to be reassuring. 

Ryan enters the room and sits down on the couch. He looks at the TV for a little bit, but I don't think he's actually paying attention. I fidget with the blanket. "How are  _ you _ ?" I ask, like a broken record. 

Ryan shrugs. "I don't know, man," he says. He leans heavily on his hand. "I don't think I feel  _ anything _ right now." 

"I don't think that's healthy."

"Eh." 

And that's where that conversation ends. I look away from him after a moment and stare at the screen. The credits are rolling across. 

"What did y'all talk about before I got here?" Ryan asks when Livi returns, holding two plastic cups of diet Coke. 

"Conspiracy theories," I say.

Liv takes a sip and sits down next to Ryan, who takes one of the cups. "About work," she says. She takes another drink. "The murders, disappearing kids, more murders -  _ or _ suicides-" she glances at me- "and… Other questionable things that make me want to quit. And I'm going to." She knocks the rest of the Coke back like a shot and puts the cup on the table. "Tomorrow. Or tonight, after work. One of the two. I am  _ done _ ." 

"Really?" Ryan asks. He hasn't drunk any of his soda. 

"I'd rather work  _ anywhere _ but here. It's been two days and I've stopped sleeping and I'm so stressed that I'm seeing things - though that might be cause I haven't slept" She punctuates almost every word with some jagged hand gesture before she stops, sighs, and scrubs her hand down her face. 

"And because of the eight cups of coffee you've drunk," I say. 

"Six."

Ryan cuts in, "If you quit, I'm quitting." He raises the cup to his lips but doesn't drink. "I wanna get out of here."

I hesitate before responding. "Yeah, me too. I don't think I could handle any of this alone." And the other three would be of no help. I don't say that part out loud. I fidget with the corner of the blanket. 

"Then, it's settled," Livi says. "We're quitting tonight." She picks up her own little cup, runs her thumbnail along the edge of it, contemplating something. 

"Cool," Ryan says. The conversation trails off into an awkward silence. 

Livi breaks it. "So, uh, who's gonna call the Uber this time?" she says. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> night 3 boys :)))


End file.
